OP-II-3

PP-III-66products almost to the zero-level [3]. This circumstance has a great practicalimportance due to the fact that H 2 could be easier separated from C 2 -C 4hydrocarbons than CH 4 (e.g. by relatively inexpensive membrane separation).The present work is devoted to studies of non-traditional process of hydrogenproduction by selective catalytic pyrolysis of С 2 -С 4 hydrocarbons which proceeding innon-equilibrium manner. High-loaded bimetallic Ni-M/SiO 2 (M=Cu, Mo, Co, Fe)catalyst with total metal content of 90 wt.% and SiO 2 as textural promoter were used.Experiments were carried out in quartz flow reactor with a vibrofluidized bed underatmospheric pressure at 550–650°C using undiluted propane, butane, ethylene andpropane-butane mixture (commercial LPG) as a feedstock.As a result influence of operating conditions (hydrocarbon, catalyst compositionand temperature) on hydrogen yield and selectivity, as well as some textural andstructural properties of carbon nanofibers was established. The possible mechanismof the process of catalytic pyrolysis of С 2 -С 4 hydrocarbons included intermediatesteps of formation of active surface species is suggested for explanation the effectsobserved.For instance hydrogen concentration in reaction products in the process ofpyrolysis of C 3 H 8 on 50 wt.% Ni-40 wt.% Cu/SiO 2 catalyst at 600°С reaches up to60 vol. %. At the same time the H 2 :CH 4 ratio not less than 12:1 could be achievedduring more than 20 hours. After removal of С 2 -С 4 hydrocarbons from reactionproducts by conventional inexpensive method (e.g. separation using inorganicmembrane) one can receive CO-free mixture of hydrogen and methane containingmore than 95 vol.% of hydrogen. This mixture is suitable as a fuel for PEMFC withoutany additional processing.References[1]. Chouldhary T.V., Goodman D.W. CO-free fuel processing for fuel cell applications. // CatalysisToday, N77, 2002, p. 65-78.[2]. Shah N., Panjala D., Huffman G.P. Hydrogen production by catalytic decomposition of methane. //Energy & Fuels. - 2001. N. 15, 2001. - P. 1528-1534.[3]. E.A. Solovyev, D.G. Kuvshinov, D.Yu. Ermakov, G.G. Kuvshinov Production of hydrogen andnanofibrous carbon by selective catalytic decomposition of propane // Int. J. Hydrogen Energy –2009. V. 34 (3). – P. 1310.AcknowledgementsThis work was financially supported by programs of Ministry of education and science ofthe Russian Federation: “Research and educational staff of innovative Russia” (contract02.740.11.0053) and “Development of scientific potential of the higher school” (contract2.1.1/1758).562