Experimental investigation of steam reforming of methanol over La2CuO4/CuZnAl-oxides nanocatalysts

Nanocatalysts of compound metal oxides (La2CuO4)(x)(CNZ-1)(1-x) (x=0.3, 0.5, 0.7) were prepared. Steam reforming of methanol (SRM) over these nanocatalysts was experimentally studied at a H2O/methanol molar ratio of 1.6. The results showed that the methanol solution catalyzed by all catalysts synthesized in this work could be completely converted into H-2, CO2 and a small amount of CO below a reaction temperature of 270 degrees C with a liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) of 1.2 ml/(g.h). The catalysts of La2CuO4 and CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 were tested under the same operating conditions. Compared with La2CuO4, LCOx-CNZ showed better performance with a higher methanol conversion rate and H2 yield. Conversely LCO5-CNZ had better CO and H-2 selectivity compared with CuO/ZnO/Al2O3. LCO3-CNZ showed good competitiveness in all four above aspects when operated at 150-270 degrees C. It could be concluded that LCOx-CNZ with special structures provided a significant improvement in catalytic performance of SRM benefiting from the synergistic effect among La2CuO4 and CuZnAl oxides. Thermodynamics analysis and experiments using a hybrid power generation system were applied with the above catalysts. Under direct normal irradiation at 915 W/m(2) and a reaction temperature of 230 degrees C, LCO3-CNZ showed 9.7% higher H-2 yield and 3.9% higher net solar power generation efficiency than did Cu/Zn/Al oxides.