Direct methanol steam reforming to hydrogen over CuZnGaOx catalysts without CO post-treatment: mechanistic considerations.

Journal article

Utilization of hydrogen gas (and carbon dioxide) from methanol steam reforming reaction directly without CO post-treatment to supply proton exchange membrane fuel cells for mobile applications is an attractive option. CuZnGaOx based mixed oxides prepared by co-precipitation are found to be active as catalysts for the reforming reaction. It is also found that the use of lower temperature and a faster substrate flow rate with a shorter contact time with the catalyst bed can significantly reduce the CO level in the product gas stream. At 150 °C this class of oxides gives a decent methanol conversion but can also totally suppress the CO production at a short contact time, which is in a sharp contrast with conventional CuZnOx based catalysts that give a significant degree of CO formation. Characterization using Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform (DRIFT) analysis presented in this work clearly suggests the importance of the interface between copper metal-defective oxides for the catalysis. Mechanistic aspects of this reaction are therefore discussed in this paper.

Authors: Tong, W; Cheung, K; West, A; Yu, K; Tsang, S

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 19
• Pages: 7240-7248
• Publication date: 2013-05-01
• DOI: 10.1039/c3cp51073e
• EISSN: 1463-9084
• ISSN: 1463-9076
• Language: English