Steam reforming of methanol over mesoporous Cu–Al spinel catalysts synthesized by mechanochemical method

Abstract

Hydrogen production for fuel cells via on-board steam reforming of methanol is a promising approach. In this study, an ammonium carbonate-assisted mechanochemical procedure has been developed for Cu-based catalyst synthesis for SRM. Catalytic performance in SRM was evaluated in a fixed bed reactor at varied conditions, and physical and structure properties of the catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption-desorption, N2O titration, SEM, H2-TPR, XRD and TG, etc. Mechanical milled samples exhibited a porous structure that differed from that of the catalyst prepared by conventional impregnation. The SRM activity was enhanced for the strong interaction between copper ions and the copper aluminate formed on the ball-milled catalysts. Cu1Zn3Al6 exhibited the worst in activity, which could be ascribed to the poor metal dispersion. Cu–Al spinel in the catalysts plays an important role in the catalytic stability, which has prevented Cu from quick sintering in SRM, and the ball-milled catalysts have exhibited a slight deactivation with the time-on-stream of 25 ​h.