Ni-CeO2/C Catalysts with Enhanced OSC for the WGS Reaction

In this work, the WGS performance of a conventional Ni/CeO2 bulk catalyst is compared to that of a carbon-supported Ni-CeO2 catalyst. The carbon-supported sample resulted to be much more active than the bulk one. The higher activity of the Ni-CeO2/C catalyst is associated to its oxygen storage capacity, a parameter that strongly influences the WGS behavior. The stability of the carbon-supported catalyst under realistic operation conditions is also a subject of this paper. In summary, our study represents an approach towards a new generation of Ni-ceria based catalyst for the pure hydrogen production via WGS. The dispersion of ceria nanoparticles on an activated carbon support drives to improved catalytic skills with a considerable reduction of the amount of ceria in the catalyst formulation.

Financial support of Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion of Spain (Project MAT2010-21147) is gratefully acknowledged. L.P.P. acknowledges her grant BES-2011-0406508. The Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) is also acknowledged for the funding linked to the projects ENE2012-374301-C03-01 and ENE2013-47880-C3-2-R.