In this work, ZrO
b>2b> was employed as support and as Al
b>2b>O
b>3b> modifier of Ni
based catalysts due to its special interesting characteristics. The catalytic activity of these systems was studied in steam reforming of glycerol to produce H
b>2b>. As the activity results at 773聽K and 873聽K showed, the NiZ catalyst allowed low glycerol conversion and H
b>2b> production when compared to the Ni纬A catalyst. Moreover, the NiZ catalyst was not a
ble to reform intermediate liquid products into gaseous products.
The behaviour of the Ni纬A catalyst was improved when an intermediate content of ZrOb>2b> was added to Alb>2b>Ob>3b>, resulting in higher Hb>2b>鈥?yield and capacity to reform intermediate products even at 773聽K. This improvement seems to be related to a larger proportion of surface Ni掳 species (XPS). This Ni掳 proportion increase could be attributed to the formation of ZrOb>2b>-Alb>2b>Ob>3b> species. These species decreased Ni2+ species reduction temperature, favouring Ni2+聽鈫捖燦i掳 transformation.