Investigation on the platinum-loaded NaY zeolite catalysts for liquid phase reforming of carbohydrates to hydrogen

Hydrogen production from biomass has been paid more attention for years. Processes suggested for production of hydrogen from biomass are often involved in high-temperature pyrolysis^[1-2], catalytic steam reforming ^[3] or enzymatic biosynthesis^[4]. These strategies, however, encounter problems of high consumption of energy, low catalyst efficiency and very limited productivity. Group VIII metals such as Pt, Ni and Ru are more likely to be effective catalysts for reforming of oxygenated hydrocarbons (the main component in biomass), and among which, only Pt and Pd show both high activities and high selectivity for production of H ₂^[5-7]. Although lots of catalysts have been screened for this aqueous-phase reforming, the catalysts with high loadings noble metal such as platinum has to be used even when conducting at low feed concentration of 1 wt%^[8]. Therefore, highly active catalytic materials need to be developed in order to render the process practical.