Glycerol steam reforming over ceria-zirconia supported metallic catalysts

Abstract

Glycerol is a main by-product of transesterification reaction of plants oils to its methyl esters which are used as a substitute or as an additive to diesel fuel. Still growing so-called biodiesel production leads to large amounts of glycerol fraction flooding the market. One of the possible ways of its utilization is steam reforming reaction which main product is synthesis gas containing high concentration of hydrogen for which is still growing demand. In this work four metallic (Ni, Pt, Ru and Re) catalysts supported on ceria-zirconia mixed oxides have been investigated in glycerol steam reforming reaction.