Dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane over Pt/V 2 O 5 and Pt/Y 2 O 3 for hydrogen delivery applications Anshu Shukla, Jayshri V. Pande, Rajesh B. Biniwale* National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Nehru Marg, Nagpur, Maharashtra 440020, India article info Article history: Received 26 August 2011 Received in revised form 12 November 2011 Accepted 15 November 2011 Available online 16 December 2011 Keywords: Hydrogen delivery Methylcyclohexane Dehydrogenation catalysts Spray-pulse reactor Metal oxide support abstract Dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane (MCH) for hydrogen transportation and delivery application was carried out over 3 wt% Pt/V 2 O 5 and 3 wt% Pt/Y 2 O 3 catalyst. The catalytic activity was tested using a spray-pulse mode of reactor. Effective dehydrogenation of MCH under spray-pulse mode of reactant injection was observed. In terms of hydrogen evolu- tion rate at 60 min from start of reaction the activity of 958 mmol/g/min was obtained at temperature of 350  C. Nearly 100% selectivity toward hydrogen was obtained. A relatively high conversion of 98% was observed with 3 wt% Pt/Y 2 O 3 at 60 min using an advanced spray-pulse reactor system. The catalysts were characterized using x-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), CO-chemisorption metal analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. Copyright ª 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Use of cycloalkanes such as cyclohexane, methylcyclohexane (MCH), decalin, etc. has been reported for efficient hydrogen storage and transportation [1]. A reaction pair of hydrogena- tion of aromatics at hydrogen production facility to produce cycloalkanes and subsequent dehydrogenation of cyclo- alkanes at fueling station would help in delivering hydrogen to fuel cell vehicles [2]. Having relatively higher hydrogen storage capacity of 6e8 % wt and 60e63 kg/m 3 in terms of weight and volume basis is an advantage with cycloalkanes. Besides a high storage capacity, the reaction of dehydrogenation is very selective toward hydrogen and aromatics (condensable) over Pt containing catalysts. The hydrogen delivered using this method therefore is free from any contaminants including CO or CO 2 [2]. Among the cycloalkanes MCH was considered as a potential candidate in this study due to two major reasons. The first was that the dehydrogenated product of MCH is toluene which is safer in health impact point of view as compared to benzene a product of cyclohexane dehydro- genation. The second reason was MCH has relatively higher capacity of hydrogen storage. While using Pt as a catalyst for dehydrogenation reactions a few important aspects need to be considered for the cata- lyst’s design [3,4]. These include oxidation state of Pt, its interaction with support and with second metal in case of bimetallic catalyst [2]. The interaction with support or other metal is due to hydrogen spillover, reverse spillover or surface migration [2]. Literature reports metal oxides and perovskites can be good option for several catalytic reactions [5]. Exploring the role of support we have earlier reported the dehydroge- nation of MCH over Pt supported on various metal-oxides namely, La 2 O 3 , Al 2 O 3 , CeO 2 , MnO 2 , TiO 2 , Fe 2 O 3 and ZrO 2 [3]. Use of metal oxides as support promotes the activity and * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 712 2249885x410, þ91 9822745768 (mobile); fax: þ91 712 2249900. E-mail address: rb_biniwale@neeri.res.in (R.B. Biniwale). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy 37 (2012) 3350 e3357 0360-3199/$ e see front matter Copyright ª 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.11.078