Glycerol Steam Reforming for Hydrogen Production on Metal-ceramic Core-shell CoAl2O4@Al Composite Structures

In this study, we investigated the structure and properties of a highly heat conductive metal-ceramic core-shell CoAl2O4@Al micro-composite for heterogeneous catalysts support. The CoAl2O4@Al was prepared by hydrothermal surface oxidation of Al metal powder, which resulted in the structure with a high heat conductive Al metal core encapsulated by a high surface area CoAl2O4 shell. For comparison, CoAl2O4 was also prepared by co-precipitation method and also utilized for a catalyst support. Rh catalysts supported on CoAl2O4@Al and CoAl2O4 were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation and characterized by N2 adsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), CO chemisorption, and tem- perature-programmed reduction (TPR). The properties of catalysts were investigated for glycerol steam reforming reaction for hydrogen production at 550 ℃. Rh/CoAl2O4@Al exhibited about 2.8 times higher glycerol conversion turnover frequency (TOF) than Rh/CoAl2O4 due to facilitated heat transport through the core-shell structure. The CoAl2O4@Al and CoAl2O4 also showed some catalytic activities due to a partial reduction of Co on the support, and a higher catalytic activity was also found on the CoAl2O4@Al core-shell than CoAl2O4. These catalysts, however, displayed deactivation on the reaction stream due to carbon deposition on the catalysts surface.