Optimized Cobalt-Loaded Palm Oil Fuel Ash (Co/POFA) Catalyst for Syngas Production via Ethanol Dry Reforming

Abstrak

Converting biogenic carbon and captured CO₂ into synthesis gas (syngas) via ethanol dry reforming (EDR) offers a pathway to low-carbon fuels, but catalyst instability and coking remain key barriers. Palm-oil fuel ash (POFA), a silica-rich agro-industrial waste, was investigated in this study as a support material for cobalt loading and to evaluate its performance in EDR. Co/POFA catalysts containing 5-20 wt % Co was prepared by ultrasonic-assisted incipient wetness, calcined, and tested for EDR at 750 °C. Nitrogen physisorption, FT-IR, and post-reaction TGA were employed to correlate catalyst texture, surface chemistry, and thermal stability with ethanol and CO₂ conversion, as well as H₂ and CO yields.  Maximal, durable activity occurred at the intermediate Co loading (15 wt%), where ethanol and CO₂ conversions were ~72% and 80% initially and remained ~50% and 68% after 5 h, the ~48% H₂ yield was sustained, consistent with a loading that maximizes accessible Co sites without incurring mesopore transport limitations. Lower loading of 5 wt % Co was site-limited and heavily coked, whereas excessive loading of 20 wt % Co showed rapid deactivation attributed to pore blockage and cobalt agglomeration despite minimal coke. Optimizing cobalt dispersion on conditioned POFA enables stable syngas production under demanding EDR conditions, validating Co/POFA as a viable waste-derived catalyst for circular, CO₂-utilizing hydrogen generation. Copyright © 2026 by Authors, Published by BCREC Publishing Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).