Acetic acid-phenol steam reforming for hydrogen production: Effect of different composition of La 2 O 3 -Al 2 O 3 support for bimetallic Ni-Co catalyst Walid Nabgan a , Tuan Amran Tuan Abdullah a,b, *, Ramli Mat b , Bahador Nabgan a , Yahya Gambo b , Kamal Moghadamian c a Centre of Hydrogen Energy, Institute of Future Energy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia b Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia c Islamic Azad University of Mahshahr, Mahshahr, Iran A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 16 February 2016 Received in revised form 4 May 2016 Accepted 26 May 2016 Available online 27 May 2016 Keyword: Acetic acid Phenol Steam reforming Hydrogen production La 2 O 3 -Al 2 O 3 series A B S T R A C T Hydrogen production from a mixture of side products of pyrolysis oil through the catalytic steam reforming was carried out. Acetic acid and phenol were considered as side products in the bio-oil derived from the pyrolysis of biomass. The performance of bimetallic Nickel-Cobalt (Ni-Co) catalyst supported on different ratios of Lanthanum (III) Oxide (La 2 O 3 ) and gamma-aluminum oxide (g-Al 2 O 3 ) was evaluated. The catalytic properties of the prepared catalysts were characterized for the total acidity, basicity, catalyst total surface area, crystallinity and the reducibility of active metal. The results of the characterization shows that presence of g-Al 2 O 3 as a support decreased the reducibility, acidic and basic site of the catalyst but increased its performance due to high surface area. By increasing the g-Al 2 O 3 metal oxide content in the catalyst, the coke deposits are increased because of the weak interaction of metal-support of high g-Al 2 O 3 contents catalysts. Catalyst dilution was found to increase the performance of the steam reforming reaction by changing the catalyst bed height. The results show that the 100% conversion for acetic acid and 95.7% for phenol at 800  C over the undiluted catalyst while 97% of phenol conversion was achieved while SiC dilution applied. ã 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The exploration for alternative energy sources has become a necessity due to the reduction of worldwide fossil fuel resources coupled with the endless rise in energy demand. The use of biomass is considered as a clean alternative energy resource due to its renewability and relatively low CO 2 and low sulfur value levels. In many areas, the operation of biomass energy has been widely improved. Through thermo-chemical processes, it can be con- verted into hydrogen and hydrogen-rich gas. Thermo-chemical conversion methods generally includes steam reforming, pyrolysis, gasification, and high-pressure supercritical conversion [1]. There are lots of components in bio-oil derived from biomass which comprises of ketones, alcohols, carboxylic acids, aldehydes, acetic acid and phenols [2,3]. A complete study on bio-oil derived from diverse biomass remains reveals that acids, phenols and ketones are the major ones with 19 wt.%, 30 wt.% and 21 wt.% weight percentages respectively. Hence, in studies on catalytic steam reforming phenol, acetic acid (HOAc) and hydroxyacetone are mostly employed as generic model combinations for each group [4]. The phenols, acetic acids and phenolic compounds are not considered as fuels and they are corrosive to combustion engines. A typical bio-oil generation results in 30 wt.% acetic acids [5] and 38 wt.% phenols [6] as unwanted components of pyrolysis oil. The methods used for hydrogen production from biomass are catalytic steam reforming of biomass pyrolysis oil and gasification. Among the economic advantages of bio-oil steam reforming process includes its easy operation and high yield of hydrogen [7,8]. For more than two decades, significant research efforts have been dedicated towards improving the process for hydrogen production. Ketonization, water shift reaction, methanation, and thermal analysis reaction are possible reactions which may occur through acetic acid-phenol steam reforming [9–11]. Phenols contain an OH group, which is bonded to one of the sp 2 carbon atoms of a * Corresponding author at: Centre of Hydrogen Energy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia. E-mail addresses: tamran@cheme.utm.my, tuanamran@utm.my (T.A. Tuan Abdullah). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2016.05.030 2213-3437/ã 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering 4 (2016) 2765–2773 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering journal homepage: www.else vie r.com/locat e/jece