CeO₂-supported Ni and Co catalysts prepared by a solution combustion method for H₂ production from glycerol: the effect of fuel/oxidizer ratio and oxygen excess

Glycerol is a promising raw material for obtaining various chemicals and fuels, including H2. Nevertheless, the development of cost-effective and stable catalysts with high activity and selectivity for H2 production from glycerol under mild conditions has been a serious problem for their practical use. In this work, a series of CeO2-supported Ni and Co catalysts with the content of Ni and Co as metal(II) oxides being 30 wt% was prepared by solution combustion synthesis via changing the fuel/oxidizer ratio (φ = 0.7–3), the fuel type (glycine, urea), and the oxygen excess. Thus, various species of Ni and Co and their interactions with CeO2 were obtained, which affected the reduction sequence, defectiveness, textural characteristics, and activity in steam and aqueous-phase reforming of glycerol. To study the characteristics of the obtained samples, instrumental methods such as XRD, DTA-TGA, low-temperature N2 physisorption, SEM-EDX, H2-TPR, and H2- and CO2-TPD, as well as Raman spectroscopy, were used. The results demonstrated that the Ni–Ce–O system synthesized with a high glycine-to-oxidizer ratio can successfully compete with catalysts based on noble metals (Pt/γ-Al2O3) in aqueous-phase reforming of glycerol.