Methanol Steam Reforming on Bimetallic Catalysts Based on In and Nb Doped Titania or Zirconia: A Support Effect

Alexandra Lytkina-Payen,Natalya Tabachkova,Andrey Yaroslavtsev

doi:10.3390/pr10010019

Alexandra Lytkina-Payen, Natalya Tabachkova + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/pr10010019

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Abstract

Methanol steam reforming (MSR) is considered an effective method for hydrogen storage and to generate high-quality hydrogen for fuel cells. In this work, a comprehensive investigation of the methanol steam reforming process using a bimetallic Pt–Rh and Cu–Ni based on different oxide supports is presented. Highly dispersed titania and zirconia doped with indium and niobium ions were synthesized by sol–gel method. The effect of the nature and quantity of the dopant cation (In, Nb) on the catalytic performance of titania supported metal catalysts was investigated. The conclusions obtained show a significant effect of both the metal alloy and the oxide support nature on the activity and selectivity of the methanol steam reforming process. Pt–Rh alloy catalyst shows higher hydrogen yield, but its selectivity in the MSR process is lower than for the catalysts containing the Cu0.8-Ni0.2 alloy. Heterovalent indium doping of titania leads to the catalytic activity increase. It was suggested that this is due to the defects formation in the oxygen TiO2 sublattice. On the contrary, the use of niobium oxide as a dopant decreases the catalyst activity in the methanol steam reforming process but leads to the selectivity increase in the studied process.

Highlights

Due to the contemporary worldwide trend to decrease environmental pollution levels, hydrogen energy receives a great deal of attention [1,2]
X-ray patterns of the obtained supports indicate the formation of the corresponding materials based on zirconia and titania with a single-phase structure
A comparative study of methanol steam reforming process on the platinum–rhodium and copper–nickel catalysts based on the indium or niobium doped titania supports has been carried out

Summary

Introduction

Due to the contemporary worldwide trend to decrease environmental pollution levels, hydrogen energy receives a great deal of attention [1,2]. Since hydrogen in nature is always bounded, one of the key issues is its production. The focus has been on hydrogen production by natural gas steam reforming [3,4,5]. At the same time, carbon monoxide is formed, which is a catalytic poison for the low-temperature fuel cells [6,7]. Natural gas pyrolysis can be an alternative approach, which has the merit of almost absence a “carbon footprint” [8,9,10,11]. Even in a catalyst presence, the process proceeds only at high temperatures and is accompanied by catalyst deactivation due to carbon deposits [9,12,13,14]. A loss of significant energy partly due to the carbon exclusion from oxidation processes and a lack of demand for the producing carbon inhibits widespread occurrence of this process [8,11]

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