Alleviating coking in ethanol steam reforming by co-loading binary oxides Ni-M (M=Ag, Cu, Mn) on peony-like ceria

Previously, hydrothermally prepared mesoporous peony-like ceria (PCO) material was shown to exhibit superior catalytic properties for CO oxidation and ethanol reforming. Ni supported PCO had been shown to have high activity for ethanol steam reforming at low temperature. In this work, Ag, Cu and Mn is co-loaded with Ni on PCO catalysts by impregnation method. The catalysts were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and a combined thermogravimetry, differential scanning calorimetry, and mass spectrometry (TG-DSC-MS). It was found that all the catalysts gave 100% ethanol conversion above ca. 300°C and exhibited similar H2 yield. It is found that the severe coking problem for the Ni-loaded PCO catalyst was alleviated significantly if Ag, Cu or Mn is co-loaded. Among them, the addition of Mn is the most effective in reducing carbon formation.