Catalytic performance of NiCo-CePr oxide on FeCrAlloy micromonoliths in hydrogen production by oxidative steam reforming of ethanol

• Catalytic efficiency of micromonoliths close to the thermodynamic values. • Achieved notable benefits in the reforming of ethanol with low catalyst loads. • NiCo catalyst promoted by CePr incorporation on FeCrAlloy micromonoliths. The conformation of a NiCo catalyst promoted by CePr on FeCrAlloy thermally pretreated micromonoliths was investigated via washcoating using a colloidal suspension of the catalytic precursor (hydrotalcite, HT) without the use of additives. A high affinity was established between the nature of the reconstructed HT and the layer of the formed alumina microstructures obtained after thermal treatment, which exhibited high material adhesion. The effect of the amount of catalyst incorporated into the sinusoidal microchannels of monoliths was also investigated. The catalytic performance was evaluated for the production of H 2 from oxidative steam reforming of ethanol (OSRE) and compared with that of a powder catalyst (slurry) and an uncoated micromonolith. The results indicated notable benefits from the micromonoliths, especially when incorporating low amounts of catalyst with low layer thicknesses-LT (8 g·L -1 , layer thickness ∼ 0.3 µm), achieved a hydrogen yield of 2.86 mol H2 ·mol EtOH -1 , comparable to that of the powder catalyst benchmark (2.91 mol H2 ·mol EtOH -1 ), but with enhanced stability at 65 h and improved heat and mass transport characteristics. Overall, this study opens the way for the promising feasibility of scaling up the OSRE reaction to produce H 2 .