Characteristic of Cu-based catalytic coating for methanol steam reforming prepared by cold spray

Cu-based catalyst is active for methanol steam reforming (MSR) at low temperature. The Cu, Cu+Al2O3 composite and CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 catalytic powers are used as feedstock for coating fabrication by cold spray. MSR experiment and SEM, EDX, XRD analysis before and after the MSR on the coating has been carried out to study the micostructure and catalytic characteristic of the deposits. Results show that, after reaction the morphology of the Cu coating changes from piled sheets structure to mciro-ramify structure, its porosity obviously increase, the net weight of O, Al in the coating increases, H-2 content in the reaction products reaches 74.9%. While for the Cu+Al2O3 composite coating, the content of copper in the coating decreases compared with the initial powder, and the stability of Cu+Al2O3 coating is better than the copper coating in MSR reaction. Particle bonding between coating and substrate and the bonding between the particles in the coating is mainly belonged to mechanical bite and physical bonding; Porosity in the latter two coating is higher than the copper coating. But there is no phase change of the coating. CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 coating shows a much higher activity than conventional fixed bed catalyst due to the reduction of heat and mass transfer resistance in the reactor. So it is available to fabricate catalytic coating by cold spray.