Hydrogen production from wood vinegar reforming over cobalt modified nickel-based catalyst

In order to realize high value utilization of wood vinegar, a series of Ni based catalysts with different Co contents prepared by impregnation method were tested in a fixed bed reactor. The effects of liquid space-time velocity, reaction temperature and Ni/Co ratio on hydrogen production, carbon conversion, H₂ selectivity and carbon deposition were investigated. The catalysts were characterized by XRF, H₂-TPR, SEM and elemental analysis. The results show that the gas production increases with the increase of space-time velocity of liquid, but the catalyst deactivation is accelerated when the space-time velocity of liquid is too high. High temperature is conducive to the catalytic reforming of wood vinegar to produce hydrogen. When the temperature reaches 900 °C, the hydrogen yield is the highest. With the increase of cobalt content, the carbon deposition and hydrogen yield decrease. Therefore, when the liquid space velocity is 60 h⁻¹ and the temperature is 800 °C, the Ni-0.5Co/Al₂O₃ catalyst is most conducive to the hydrogen production experiment of wood vinegar.