Hydrogen production by steam reforming of methanol over Cu-CeZrYOx-based catalysts

Active and selective Cu-x(CeZrY)(1-x)O-y catalysts (pure and with addition of Al2O3 and Cr) for the steam reforming of methanol were synthesized via the urea-nitrate combustion method. Structural, Surface and redox characteristics of these catalysts were investigated by XRD, BET, IR spectroscopy, differential dissolution (DID), H-2-TPR and XPS methods. It was shown that addition of alumina and Cr leads to the steep increase in H-2 production due to appearance of highly dispersed copper species and stabilizes their activity. The parallel change of SRM rate constants and maximal rates of reduction with hydrogen characterizing mobility of lattice oxygen at variation of the catalyst composition was revealed that shows the importance of lattice oxygen mobility for steam reforming of methanol. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.