Hydrogen production via steam reforming of methanol over Cu/(Ce,Gd)O2-x catalysts

Hydrogen production via steam reforming of methanol is carried out over Cu/(Ce,Gd)O2-x catalysts at 210-600 degrees C. The CO content in reformate is about 1% at 210-270 degrees C, which are the typical temperature for hydrogen production via steam reforming of methanol. Largest H-2 yield and CO2 selectivity and smallest CO content are obtained at 240 degrees C. The formation rate of CO increases with increasing temperature. The average formation rate of CO becomes larger than that of CO2 at about 450 degrees C. The H-2 yield, the CO2 selectivity and the CO content become constant at about 550 degrees C. At 240 C, the smallest CO content is obtained with a catalyst weight of 0.5 g and a Cu content of 3 wt%. The H-2 yield, defined as H-2/ (CO + CO2) in formation rates, at 240 degrees C is always 3 and not affected by the variations of either the catalyst weight or the Cu content. (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.