Reforming reaction of kerosene for hydrogen production

Because of its high energy density, safety and logistic ability kerosene is the mostly used fuel in vehicles. While designing an auxillary power unit for these vehicles, to supply the needed hydrogen for the fuel cell systems, steam reforming of kerosene fuel is chose. In this study, a steam reforming system has been designed and kerosene has been catalytically reacted with steam to obtain a hydrogen rich gas mixture.In this work alumina supported ruthenium and nickel based catalysts have been synthesized. Catalysts were synthesized by using impregnation methods with different Ru/Ni ratios as %1 Ru, %15 Ni, %1 Ru-%5 Ni, %1 Ru-%10 Ni ve %1 Ru-%15 Ni. The produced catalysts were characterized by XRD to examine crystal structures, TGA for carbon deposition analysis, SEM-EDS for microstructural investigation, BET for specific surface area and pore diameter analysis. Four characteristic peaks for RuO2, NiO2, CeO2 and Al2O3 peaks were examined in the XRD patterns of catalysts. The surface areas of these samples, determined by BET analysis, changes between 122 and 103 m2/g. Also, when the amount of nickel in catalyst is increased, an increase in Al2O3 peak intensity and a decrease in surface area values were observed.In the last part of the study, kerosene reforming experiments were carried out using a tubular reactor at 800 oC. Catalytic tests have done different steam/carbon (H2O/C) ratios as 5.84, 4.88, 3.89 Produced gas mixture has been analyzed by gas cromotography and gas compositions have been identified. It has been observed that the produced gas mixture contains methane and carbon oxides in addition to high ratio of hydrogen. Using gas chromatography results, CO2 % yields of the catalysts have been calculated. These calculations show that using %1Ru-%15Ni base catalyst has higher yield than other catalysts as 99.63 %. Also, when the amount of H2O/C ratio decreased in catalytic tests, an increase of CH4 % in the product gas composition and a decrease of catalysts CO2 % yield to around average of 96 %.Key Words: Reforming, kerosene, Ru/Al2O3, Ni/Al2O3