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KN-7H 2 PRODUCTION BY METHANE DECOMPOSITION OVER Ni ANDCo THIN LAYER CATALYSTS: ROLE OF MSI IN DRIVING THECOKE FORMATION MECHANISMFrusteri F. 1 , Italiano G. 2 and Parmaliana A. 2†1 CNR-ITAE “Nicola Giordano”, Via S. Lucia sopra Contesse,5 – 98126 – Messina, Italy2 Messina University, Dept. of Industrial Chemistry,Salita Sperone 31 – 98166 – Messina, ItalyA reversible cyclic stepwise process based on catalytic decomposition of naturalgas (CDNG) and carbon removal could represent a suitable technology for smallscale hydrogen production for fuel cell application. The catalytic decomposition ofnatural gas (CDNG) into hydrogen and carbon is attracting much research interestsince it appears to be a direct, mildly endothermic, attractive way for producing highly“pure” hydrogen with reduced CO 2 emissions. Although the CDNG reaction wasextensively studied in the last decades, the main technological drawbacks associatedwith catalyst lifetime and regeneration remain still unsolved [1]. Ni-based systems arethe most investigated systems since they are active and stable at mild reactionconditions (T R , 773–873 K; P R , 0.1MPa) [2–6]. Unfortunately, their use has met somedrawbacks since they are active in a very narrow window of working temperature andare unstable during oxidative treatment (burn-off with O 2 /air, gasification withH 2 O/CO 2 ) normally used for coke removal [7,8]. The cobalt-based catalysts havebeen object of several studies in the CDNG reaction [9,10]. At temperatures higherthan 873K in CH 4 atmosphere the cobalt catalysts promote the formation of “singlewalled nano-tube” (SWNT) [11]. Although the Co catalysts are less active withrespect to the Nickel catalysts they result to be more stable by operating at highertemperature.In this work, Ni and Co/Al 2 O 3 /Silica Cloth Thin Layer Catalysts (CoAS) forCatalytic Decomposition of Natural Gas (CDNG) were investigated using a MultilayerCatalytic Reactor (MLR) [1,10]. The influence of metal loading and reactiontemperature was evaluated with the aim to design a novel catalyst suitable todevelop a dual-step process to produce pure hydrogen for fuel cell. The obtainmentof high methane conversion level (> 80%) required reaction temperature higher than925K and Ni based TLC samples were not found adequate since at high temperatureNi drastically deactivated by encapsulating coke formation. Irrespective of Ni loading,34