Ru-coated metal monolith catalyst prepared by novel coating method for hydrogen production via natural gas steam reforming

Ru-coated FeCrAlloy monolith catalysts were prepared by a deposition-precipitation (DP) method with different solution pHs and evaluated the catalytic activity in natural gas steam reforming (NGSR) reaction for H 2 production. The characteristics of prepared monolith catalysts as to the crystallite size, surface area, pore size distribution, metal dispersion, and morphology of Ru particles were analyzed by XRD, BET, BJH, CO-chemisorption, and SEM, respectively. The solution pH had a major effect on the precipitation formation and the particle size and dispersion of Ru catalyst coated on the monolith surface. At pH 7, nano-sized Ru particles with high BET surface area (112 m 2 /g) and metal dispersion (23.5%) were formed uniformly on the monolith surface. Among the prepared monolith catalysts, the monolith catalyst prepared at pH 7 showed the highest CH 4 conversion in NGSR. Despite the less amount of Ru metal coated on the metal monolith, the monolith catalyst showed a good catalytic performance equivalent to the 2 wt% Ru/Al 2 O 3 pellet catalyst due to the high availability of the Ru active metal in NGSR. It was also confirmed that the Ru catalyst layer coated on the FeCrAlloy monolith had good adhesion via ultrasonic vibration test.