ORIGINAL PAPER Hydrogen production through catalytic low-temperature bio-ethanol steam reforming Vincenzo Palma • Filomena Castaldo • Paolo Ciambelli • Gaetano Iaquaniello Received: 6 September 2011 / Accepted: 13 January 2012 / Published online: 2 March 2012 Ó Springer-Verlag 2012 Abstract As a provider of our energy requirements, hydrogen seems to be one of most promising fuels, in particular when used to feed PEM fuel cells. When pro- duced from a renewable source, it has got the potential to reduce the dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels and lower the amount of harmful emissions. Ethanol steam- reforming (ESR) reaction is an interesting option to obtain aH 2 - and CH 4 -rich stream with a low content of CO, combining the deep knowledge of the technology with the advantage of the biomass-derived feedstock. Thermody- namic analysis has indicated that the most interesting operating range to enhance the H 2 production and mini- mize CO and coke formation requires low pressure, high temperature, and high water-to-ethanol molar ratio. On the other hand, despite its endothermic nature, ESR could be carried out at low temperature, to increase overall thermal efficiency, even if at these conditions the catalyst’s deac- tivation, due to coking and sintering phenomena, is not negligible. The main objective of this study is to investi- gate on the activity, stability, and durability of bimetallic Pt–Ni and Pt–Co catalysts supported on CeO 2 for low- temperature bio-ESR reaction. The catalysts have been prepared through different methods and with an optimized metal’s content. They have also been characterized with various physico-chemical characterization tests, and the catalytic studies have been carried out in a lab-scale apparatus. While evaluating the effects on the catalysts’ performances of preparation method, reaction temperature, space time, and water-to-ethanol molar ratio, the selected catalysts were found effective for the production of H 2 by steam reforming at low temperature. In particular, the Pt/Ni/CeO 2 catalyst shows a perfect agreement with equi- librium calculations yet at low contact times, although some carbon deposition occurs. Also the cobalt-based catalysts appear attractive. The relative rates of carbon growth versus gasification have been studied, and ascend- ing water contents were used to study the effect of steam addition in the feed stream. An in-depth investigation of the reaction mechanism and the evaluation of the kinetic parameters will be crucial to complete the study of the proposed process. Keywords Hydrogen  Bio-ethanol  Bimetallic catalysts  Steam reforming Introduction The need for renewable alternatives is becoming more urgent: Solar, wind, and biomass are promising renewable resources but are generally site-specific, intermittent, and thus, not reliably stable. In the last decade, the idea of a post-fossil fuel hydrogen-based economy started to gain mainstream interest (Ni et al. 2007; Bshish et al. 2011). Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of primary energy sources and methods that can, generally, fall into four kinds of technologies: electrochemical, photobiologi- cal, photoelectrochemical, and thermochemical. The most commonly used technique is the steam reforming from raw materials, such as natural gas, coal, methanol, ethanol, or even gasoline (Haryanto et al. 2005; Le Valant et al. 2011). Currently, the steam reforming of natural gas comprises V. Palma  F. Castaldo (&)  P. Ciambelli Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Universita ` di Salerno, Via Ponte don Melillo, 84084 Fisciano, Salerno, Italy e-mail: fcastaldo@unisa.it G. Iaquaniello Tecnimont KT S.p.A., Viale Castello della Magliana 75, 00148 Rome, Italy 123 Clean Techn Environ Policy (2012) 14:973–987 DOI 10.1007/s10098-012-0472-7