Hydrogen Production by Decomposition of Hydrocarbons over Ni/Ca/Carbon Catalysts Using Membrane-type Reactor

摘要

In order to clarify the effectiveness of the Ni/Ca/carbon catalyst/Ag-Pd membrane-type reactor (PMR) system on decomposition of hydrocarbons such as ethane and gasoline, the decomposition of these hydrocarbons was investigated. The combined system was found to be more effective for hydrogen production at 550-750 K than the fixed-bed reactor (FBR) system. In fact, the use of PMR resulted in the formation of a smaller amount of methane (< 10% yield) as a major by-product than that in the FBR (10-50% yield). It could be postulated because, first, the direct decomposition of ethane to form hydrogen in the PMR system occurs predominantly by ethane cracking to give methane, carbon, and hydrogen and, second, the permeation of hydrogen prevents recombination of hydrogen with the carbon products to give methane. The Ni/Ca/C catalysts/PMR system was found also to be effective for the formation of hydrogen by decomposition of commercially available gasoline at temperature as low 573 K.