(544fv) Oxidative Steam Reforming of Methanol over Cu-Zn-Al Oxides for the Production of Hydrogen

To study the feasibility of using the conventional CuZnAl-oxides catalysts for hydrogen production via oxidative steam reforming of methanol (OSRM), CuZnAl-oxides with different copper-zinc ratios were prepared by the reverse-coprecipitation method, and compared to the commercial CuZnAl catalyst SCST-401. It was found that the performance of the prepared catalysts improved with the increased copper-zinc molar ratio. Specifically, the prepared Cu₃₀Zn₁₀Al catalyst had the best performace for OSRM reaction in 200-600℃, while Zn₄₀Al was found to have the activity similar to Cu₂₀Zn₂₀Al and Cu₁₀Zn₃₀Al at the temperature range of 500-600℃. Additionally, the Cu₃₀Zn₁₀Al exhibited the similar methanol conversion to the commercial catalyst SCST-401 (whose copper content was much higher), yet was much more stable and with higher activity at relatively lower temperature of 200-300℃. Therefore, the developed CuZnAl-oxides were believed to be a type of promising catalysts for on-board reforming of methanol for hydrogen production and worth further study.