Abstract: The Ni/La-Al2O3 catalyst prepared by a coprecipitation method was employed to hydrogen production from steam reforming of higher hydrocarbons in a palladium membrane reactor. The catalyst was characterized by low temperature N2 adsorption, H2 temperature-programmed reduction, H2-O2 chemisorption, and X-ray diffraction. The results showed that there was a strong interaction between NiO and the support. In the Pd membrane reactor, due to the selective removal of H2 by the membrane, the yield of H2 was increased significantly, while the formation of methane was suppressed in contrast with the results in the conventional fixed-bed reactor. Even under the near-practical application conditions, e.g., high GHSV and small flux of sweep gas, high yield of H2 and membrane separation efficiency were still obtained. Furthermore, no degradation of the membrane was observed even under working conditions of 823 K and steam-to-carbon feed ratio 2.7. This suggested that it was feasible to realize H2 production from steam reforming of higher hydrocarbons using only one reactor and one nickel-based reforming catalyst at reaction temperatures lower than 823 K.

Key words: coprecipitation, nickel catalyst, nano-sized, higher hydrocarbons, steam reforming, palladium membrane reactor