Fibrous aluminosilicate catalyst support for hydrogen production by chemical looping steam reforming

Motivated by possible future applications in low pressure drop reactors for hydrogen production by fixed bed chemical looping steam reforming (CLSR), novel high porosity fibrous mats of aluminosilicate fibres have been investigated as a substrate for Ni/Co oxygen carriers (OC's). When compared to granules of a conventional 18 wt% NiO steam reforming catalyst tested over seven redox cycles of CLSR, the fibrous OCs produced by homogeneous chemical precipitation routes increased the average methane conversion by up to 10% and hydrogen yield by up to 5%. All of the OC's could be reduced by a CH4/H2O mixture and produced no solid carbon during reforming.