Production of hydrogen for fuel cells by steam reforming of methanol on Cu/ZrO2/Al2O3 catalysts

Catalytic production of hydrogen by steam reforming of methanol reaction has been developed on a series of co-precipitated Cu/ZrO2/Al2O3 catalysts at atmospheric pressure in a microreactor. Effects of catalyst composition, reaction temperature, H2O/CH3OH molar ratio and methanol space velocity on the performance of Cu/ZrO2/Al2O3 catalysts have been investigated. Cu/ZrO2/Al2O3 catalysts exhibited higher activity and stability as compared to Cu/Al2O3 catalyst. The catalyst containing 15 wt.% of ZrO2 was the most active one with a methanol conversion of 95.0 mol%, H2 selectivity of 99.9 mol% and the outlet CO concentration of 0.17 mol% at 250 °C. After 200 h of reaction, methanol conversion was still over 90.0 mol% with Cu/ZrO2/Al2O3 catalyst. XRD results showed that the addition of ZrO2 to Cu/Al2O3 catalysts not only greatly improved copper dispersion in the catalyst surface but also prevented copper crystallites from conglomeration or sintering.