Innovative and versatile heterogeneous catalysts for hydrogen production from renewable sources

The steam reforming of biomass derivatives such as ethanol and glycerol is an attractive process to produce hydrogen, the energy carrier of the future. The fulfillment of this process on industrial scale is strictly related to the design of a highly active and selective catalyst. This study focused on the effect of different parameters (the physico-chemical properties of the support; the metal-support interaction; the reducibility and the dispersion of the active phase) on the performance of Ni-based catalysts. It was demonstrated that Ni is an effective active phase in the steam reforming of oxygenated compounds and that the support is anything but a simple spectator of the reaction. Several features, such as low acidity and high stability of the support, high availability and dispersion of metallic Ni, strong metal-support interactions, must be guaranteed in order to obtain a high performing catalyst. A properly tuning of the synthesis procedure is essential to pursue these goals.