However, fossil fuels are currently the most used sources for energy consumption. Hydrogen is a renewable and clean energy, and its application only generates water as by-product. Nowadays, global warming and energy supply challenges have attracted increasing attention worldwide. When the samples were heated at higher temperatures (i.e., 230 ☌), H 2 production increased up to 55 vol% during catalyzed n-C 7 asphaltene and resin conversion, indicating an increase of up to 70% in comparison with the non-catalyzed systems at the same temperature conditions. CeNi1Pd1 showed the highest performance among the other three samples and led to the highest hydrogen production in the effluent gas with values of ~44 vol%. The hydrogen production agrees with each material’s catalytic activity for decomposing both fractions at the evaluated conditions.
Hydrogen release was quantified for the isothermal tests. At 220 ☌, the conversion of both fractions increases in the order CeO 2 < Fe-Pd < Co-Pd < Ni-Pd. The samples show the main decomposition peak between 200 and 230 ☌ for bi-elemental nanocatalysts and 300 ☌ for the CeO 2 support, leading to reductions up to 50% in comparison with the samples in the absence of nanoparticles. The catalytic capacity was measured by non-isothermal (from 100 to 600 ☌) and isothermal (220 ☌) thermogravimetric analyses. For this purpose, four nanocatalysts were selected: CeO 2, CeO 2 functionalized with Ni-Pd, Fe-Pd, and Co-Pd. This study focuses on evaluating the volumetric hydrogen content in the gaseous mixture released from the steam catalytic gasification of n-C 7 asphaltenes and resins II at low temperatures (<230 ☌).