Catalytic Oxidation of Liquid Methanol as a Heat Source for an Automotive Reformer

Abstract

A reactor for catalytically oxidizing liquid methanol has been developed for supplying heat to an automotive reformer. In the tests presented in this paper we show that it is possible to catalytically combust liquid methanol by dispersing the methanol and air by a nebulizer over the catalysts. In the experiments we tested several base and noble metals and found that either platinum or palladium was required at the ignition zone. The tests also showed that it was possible to achieve complete combustion when only 25 % of the catalyst bed contained a noble metal.

Portable power production from methanol in an integrated thermoeletric/microreactor system

“…However, self-ignition of small hydrocarbons (alkanes up to butane) has not been feasible due to the difficulty in activating the C-H bond cleavage. Methanol has been shown to self-ignite catalytically on supported Pt and Pd catalysts [14][15][16]. Self-ignition of methanol has also been shown to occur over Pt/Al 2 O 3 even when the burner was kept at 0 • C [16].…”

Preparation of Supported Noble Metal Catalyst for Methanol Catalytic Combustion at Room Temperature

“…An interest in the catalytic combustion of methanol arises also from these two reasons (Armor, 1992;Hermia and Vigneron, 1993;Karim et al, 2008;Spivey, 1987;Wieslaw and Wojciech, 2009). The existing research proved that nano particles of noble metals supported on oxides are more active than other materials for methanol combustion (Das and Parida, 2007;de la Peñ a O'Shea et al, 2005;Hu et al, 2005;Jiang et al, 1995;Lindströ m and Pettersson, 2003;Wieslaw and Wojciech, 2009). Therefore, a supported noble metal catalyst is commonly used as methanol combustion catalyst.…”