Comparative study of propane steam reforming in vanadium based catalytic membrane reactor with nickel-based catalysts

The performance of catalytic membrane reactor with Pd-coated V membrane was examined for steam reforming of propane. The long term reforming experiment confirmed the stability of the V membrane with high hydrogen selectivity and permeability. The effect of types of hydrogen permeable membranes on the performance of the catalytic membrane reactor was studied by comparing Pd-coated V, Pd-23Ag, and Pd-10Ag membranes. The types of hydrogen separation membranes (i.e. hydrogen removal rates) did not have a marked effect on the propane conversion rates, while the product compositions were largely influenced by the hydrogen removal rate. Varying metal oxide supports of Ni-catalysts resulted in significant differences in the product compositions. Further, the evaluation of various catalyst-support systems (9wt%Ni-1wt%M/CeO₂, M = Co, Pt, Ag, Ru) revealed that hydrogen yield was the highest when 1wt%Ag was added to Ni/CeO₂. However, it was also found that excessive secondary metal additions can have negative impact on the catalytic behaviour of parent catalysts.