Ni catalyst wash-coated on metal monolith with enhanced heat-transfer capability for steam reforming

Jae Hong Ryu, Kwan Young Lee, Howon La, Hak Joo Kim, Jung Il Yang, Heon Jung

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    68 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    A commercial Ni-based catalyst is wash-coated on a monolith made of 50 μm-thick fecralloy plates. Compared with the same volume of coarsely powdered Ni catalysts, the monolith wash-coated Ni catalysts give higher methane conversion in the steam reforming reaction, especially at gas hourly space velocities (GHSV) higher than 28,000 h-1, and with no pressure drop. A higher conversion of the monolith catalyst is obtained, even though it contains a lower amount of active catalyst (3 g versus 17 g for a powdered catalyst), which indicates that the heat-transfer capability of the wash-coated Ni catalyst is significantly enhanced by the use of a metal monolith. The efficacy of the monolith catalyst is tested using a shell-and-tube type heat-exchanger reactor with 912 cm3 of the monolith catalyst charged on to the tube side and hot combusted gas supplied to the shell side in a counter-current direction to the reactant flow. A methane conversion greater than 94% is obtained at a GHSV of 7300 h-1 and an average temperature of 640 °C. Nickel catalysts should first be reduced to become active for steam reforming. Doping a small amount (0.12 wt.%) of noble metal (Ru or Pt) in the commercial Ni catalyst renders the wash-coated catalyst as active as a pre-reduced Ni catalyst. Thus, noble metal-doped Ni appears useful for steam reforming without any pre-reduction procedure.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)499-505
    Number of pages7
    JournalJournal of Power Sources
    Volume171
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2007 Sept 27

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This study was supported by SK Corporation, Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy and the National RD&D Organization for Hydrogen & Fuel Cell.

    Keywords

    • Heat-transfer enhancement
    • Hydrogen fuel cells
    • Metal monolith
    • Nickel catalyst
    • Noble metal doping
    • Steam reforming

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
    • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
    • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
    • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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