High purity hydrogen production via aqueous phase reforming of xylose over small Pt nanoparticles on a γ-Al2O3 support

Yoondo Kim, Minkyeong Kim, Hyangsoo Jeong, Yongmin Kim, Sun Hee Choi, Hyung Chul Ham, Seung Woo Lee, Jin Young Kim, Kwang Ho Song, Chang Won Yoon, Young Suk Jo, Hyuntae Sohn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this study, aqueous phase reforming (APR) of xylose was conducted over highly dispersed Pt nanoparticles supported on a γ-Al2O3 support (Pt-SNP). Formation of small Pt nanoparticles was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, which revealed that most of the particles ranged between 0.8 and 1.6 nm in size and the average particle size was 1.3 nm. Temperature-programmed reduction analysis indicated that these small Pt nanoparticles were highly reducible under the reducing environment compared to the commercial Pt/γ-Al2O3 catalysts (Pt-commercial). The catalytic activities of both Pt-SNP and Pt-commercial catalysts were examined in a semi-batch autoclave reactor system for the APR of xylose. It was found that Pt-SNP showed higher carbon to gas conversion with high hydrogen selectivity than Pt-commercial. This was likely due to the increased density of edge sites in the Pt-SNP catalyst that facilitated the cleavage of the C–C bonds rather than the C–O bonds, leading to greater hydrogen production. Furthermore, the Pt-SNP catalyst showed better carbon deposit resistance as compared to Pt-commercial. The amount of carbon deposition on the Pt-SNP catalyst surface and the organic carbon species dissolved in the post-reaction xylose solution were significantly lower compared to that of Pt-commercial. Finally, high purity hydrogen production was achieved using a continuous fixed-bed hybrid reactor including an aqueous phase reformer and a home-made Pd/Ta dense metallic composite membrane. A stable hydrogen gas production (99.999%) was obtained over the Pt-SNP catalyst, which demonstrated the success of a potentially commercial APR reactor system that continuously converted the aqueous xylose solution to hydrogen with high purity.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)13848-13861
Number of pages14
JournalInternational Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume45
Issue number27
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020 May 18

Keywords

  • APR
  • Aqueous phase reforming
  • Biomass
  • Hydrogen
  • Platinum
  • Xylose

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • Fuel Technology
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology

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