(532e) Layered-Double-Hydroxide-Derived Cu Catalysts for Methanol-Steam Reforming Reaction

Methanol-steam reforming (MSR) is one of the promising technologies for on-board production of hydrogen for portable fuel-cell systems, e.g. back-up power, due to its relatively low reaction temperature (200 – 300 °C), safe handling and low cost of the feed (methanol/water mixture). For the practical development of the methanol-steam reformers, this work deals with the design of highly efficient Cu-based reforming catalysts that have thermal stability and high activity around 200 °C in order to suppress CO formation by reverse water-gas-shift reaction. To design the Cu catalysts having the high dispersion with thermal stability, the layered double hydroxides (LDHs) comprising Cu, Zn, Ni and Al are synthesized via the ordinary co-precipitation method varying the composition of the components. The prepared LDHs are calcined at 400 °C to form mixed oxide materials and reduced at 250 °C. The catalytic performance tests of the prepared LDH-derived catalysts are carried out under following experimental conditions: water/methanol molar ratio = 1.1 and WHSV = 12 /h in the temperature range of 190 – 300 °C. The characterizations of the catalysts including XRD, TPR, chemisorption analyses, etc. are also performed to investigate their physicochemical properties corresponding to their catalytic performances. Among the prepared candidates, the LDH-derived Cu-Al catalyst shows the highest dispersion of the Cu particles (CuO crystallite size < 10 nm) as well as the best catalytic activity to the MSR reaction, suppressing CO formation.