Porous copper fiber sintered felts: An innovative catalyst support of methanol steam reformer for hydrogen production

An innovative catalyst support-porous copper fiber sintered felt (PCFSF) with high porosity and large pore size was developed by sintering copper fibers. In the developed process, Cu/Zn/Al/Zr catalyst was coated on the PCFSF by an impregnation method, and then the coated PCFSF was used in a methanol steam reformer (MSR) for hydrogen production. Comparing with commercial stainless steel fiber sintered felts (SSFSFs) coated with equal mass of Cu/Zn/Al/Zr catalyst by the same process, obvious advantages were observed in methanol conversion, reformate gas flow rate and H2 production rate when the PCFSF was used as catalyst support. The H2 selectivity could reach 98% on PCFSFs. The developed MSR can generate hydrogen enough to provide a power output of 18 W for a fuel cell.