In Situ Reduction of a CuO/ZnO/CeO₂/ZrO₂ Catalyst Washcoat Supported on Al₂O₃ Foam Ceramic by Glycerol for Methanol Steam Reforming in a Microreactor

Abstract

A CuO/ZnO/CeO2/ZrO2 catalyst slurry was prepared by mixing the catalyst powder, a polyvinyl alcohol aqueous solution, and glycerol. The slurry was coated on a Al2O3 foam ceramic support via a dip-coating method. The conventional prereduction treatment of a Cu-based catalyst by H2 was replaced by in situ reduction of the catalyst by glycerol at a low temperature of 220 °C during the loading process, thus the integration of catalyst loading and reduction was achieved. The effects of the glycerol/catalyst weight ratio and the deposition number on the physicochemical properties of the prepared catalyst and the washcoat were systematically investigated. Results showed that the optimal glycerol/catalyst weight ratio led to a complete reduction of CuO with a small amount of residual carbon. A methanol steam reforming microreactor with the Al2O3 ceramic support prepared under an appropriate deposition number exhibited a 94% methanol conversion rate and a 0.15 mol/h H2 yield at 360 °C.

Hydrogen production via steam reforming of methanol on Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalysts: the effect of TiO2 addition mode

“…7,36,37 Notably, no Cu 2+ satellite peaks are observed near 943 eV or 960 eV, indicating that Cu 2+ species were predominantly reduced to Cu 0 or Cu + during the reduction process. 8,38 Furthermore, when TiO 2 was introduced via mechanical stirring, the position of the Cu 2p characteristic peak remained similar to that of CZA. However, after reduction of the catalyst prepared via ball milling, the position of the Cu 2p peak moves towards lower binding energy.…”

Minimizing Heat Transfer Resistance in an Integrated Methanol Steam Reformer Designed Using Space-Filling Curves

“…Although several studies are available for microscale reformers, − fewer studies are available on reactor designs with wall coated catalyst at milliscale, which would provide negligible transverse thermal gradients within the catalyst layer along with low pressure drop. Wall-coated reactors are generally not considered for macroscale flow capacity as the amount of catalyst in the coating is small when compared to the flow volume, resulting in low conversion for a given length of a tubular reactor.…”