Novel Reforming Catalysts

Aqueous phase reforming is useful for processing oxygenated hydrocarbons to hydrogen and other more useful products. Current processing is hampered by the fact that oxide based catalysts are not stable under high temperature hydrothermal conditions. Silica in the form of structured MCM-41 is thermally a more stable support for Co and Ni than conventional high surface area amorphous silica but hydrothermal stability is not demonstrated. Carbon nanotube supports, in contrast, are highly stable under hydrothermal reaction conditions. In this project we show that carbon nanotubes are stable high activity/selectivity supports for the conversion of ethylene glycol to hydrogen