Abstract
Hydrogen, an environmentally benign source of energy, has significantly attracted the attention of researchers in recent decades. This article discusses hydrogen production by methane decomposition over alumina supported iron-nickel-cobalt based mono-, bi- and tri-metallic catalysts. The catalysts were prepared by using wet-impregnation strategy. The fresh catalysts were characterized using different techniques such as BET, H2-TPR, and XRD. Likewise, a morphological study of selected spent catalyst was complemented by employing TEM as well as TPO. The catalytic activity results revealed that bimetallic catalysts consisting of 30 wt.% Fe and 15 wt.% Co exhibited excellent performance among all the tested catalysts. In addition, the results of sensitivity analysis revealed that an activation span of 90 min, GHSV of 5000 mL/h gcat at 700 °C as a reaction temperature were found to be the optimum process conditions. Significantly, it can be seen that in a an extended run of 1400 min involving 12 regeneration cycles, high methane conversion (>55%) can be maintained.
•Hydrogen production was investigated over iron based Al2O3 supported catalysts.•Effect of doping Ni and Co over Al2O3 supported Fe catalyst was studied.•Maximum hydrogen yield over 15% Co doped 30%Fe/Al2O3 catalyst.•Well-structured nanocarbon was formed during methane decomposition reaction.