Power-law type rate equation for propane ATR over PteNi/Al 2 O 3 catalyst Feyza Go ¨kaliler, Z. Ilsen O ¨ nsan, A. Erhan Aksoylu* Department of Chemical Engineering, Bo gazic ¸i University, 34342 Bebek, _ Istanbul, Turkey article info Article history: Received 26 February 2011 Received in revised form 3 January 2012 Accepted 24 January 2012 Available online 25 February 2012 Keywords: Hydrogen production Autothermal reforming Propane Kinetics abstract Kinetics of autothermal reforming (ATR) of propane on bimetallic PteNi catalyst supported over d-Al 2 O 3 is investigated at 673 K with the purpose of obtaining an easy-to-implement power-law type rate equation. The rate expression is proposed for conditions extending up to 20% propane conversion and has reaction orders of 1.64, 2.44 and À0.59 in propane, oxygen and steam partial pressures, respectively. Parameters estimated by non-linear regression analysis in the MATLABä environment can be reliably used for propane ATR in the steam-to-carbon ratio range of 2.0e3.0 and carbon-to-oxygen ratio range of 3.0e5.4. The apparent activation energy is calculated as 46 Æ 4 kJ mol À1 in the 653e693 K interval. Copyright ª 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Hydrogen has been widely accepted as the fuel of future owing to its possible use in fuel cells for decentralized energy production systems. Since efficient non-pressurized hydrogen storage is still a technological barrier, on-site production of hydrogen and its utilization in combined fuel processor-PEM fuel cell (FP-PEMFC) system is a promising option for small scale heat and power production [1]. An FP has three catalytic units - namely reforming, wateregas shift (WGS), and pref- erential oxidation e in series. Understanding the kinetics of these catalytic reactions is very important for designing and optimizing reaction systems and operating conditions. Several studies revealing kinetics of reforming reactions are present in literature. These studies extend over a very wide range in terms of hydrocarbon source, catalyst and/or support type, and type of reforming reactions. Various hydrocarbons, from methane to diesel, have been used as the hydrocarbon source. Some studies include commercial Ni- based catalysts while some others utilize catalysts like Ru, Pt, Ni, Rh supported over alumina, ceria or perovskite structures. Hou and Rughes have studied steam methane reforming (SMR) accompanied by the reverse WGS reaction over a commercial Ni/a-Al 2 O 3 catalyst and found that the reaction is first order with respect to methane [2]. In another study, commercial Ni and Rh-perovskite catalysts were investigated in SMR, and it was reported that the Rh catalyst has an acti- vation energy of 2/3 that of Ni catalyst and the reaction is first order and zero order for CH 4 and steam, respectively [3]. Kinetics of ethanol steam reforming (SR) was investigated over Ni/Al 2 O 3 catalyst and it was concluded that an Eley Rideal type rate model fits the experimental data to a better extent rather than power rate law data [4]. In another study [5], propane SR was studied over Rh/alumina, Rh/ceriaealumina and RheNi/ceriaealumina catalysts. Kinetic studies showed that addition of ceria and nickel increased propane reforming rates by lowering activation energies. The rate equation was * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ90 212 359 73 36; fax: þ90 212 287 24 60. E-mail addresses: feyza.gokaliler@boun.edu.tr (F. Go ¨ kaliler), onsan@boun.edu.tr (Z.I. O ¨ nsan), aksoylu@boun.edu.tr (A.E. Aksoylu). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy 37 (2012) 10425 e10429 0360-3199/$ e see front matter Copyright ª 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.01.114