Steam reforming of toluene over Ni–Co/modified-activated carbon catalyst for hydrogen production: Thermodynamic and experimental analysis

An integrated thermodynamic and experimental analysis of steam reforming of toluene (SRT) over Ni–Co/modified-palm kernel shell activated carbon (AC) catalysts for H₂ production has been investigated. The catalyst samples, synthesized with different AC support modifications methods (i.e., HNO₃ reflux and H₂O₂ aging) and impregnation, are characterized by BET, TGA, FESEM-EDX, TEM, XRD, H₂-chemisorption and TPO spectroscopies. Aspen Plus® simulation software is employed to perform the thermodynamic analysis to investigate the effect of wide range of operating parameters such as temperature (373–1473 K), pressure (1–30 atm) and steam-to-carbon (S/C) molar ratio (1–9) on product distribution using Gibbs free energy minimization. Optimum conditions of SRT with 86.4% H₂ yield and complete toluene conversion are attained at 973 K, S/C ratio of 5 and atmospheric pressure. Next, the catalytic performance of Ni–Co/modified-AC for enhancing SRT to H₂ is conducted in a fixed-bed reactor at selected conditions. It is revealed that Ni–Co/ACP catalyst confers 82.0% and 91.7% of H₂ yield and toluene conversion, respectively. The results of thermodynamic simulation and experimental testing strongly corroborate the role of Ni–Co/ACP as a high-performance catalyst to enhance catalytic conversion of SRT.