Hydrogen Production on Cu-Ni Catalysts via the Oxy-Steam Reforming of Methanol

In this work, bimetallic Cu-Ni catalysts supported on binary oxides containing ZnO, ZrO2, CeO2 and Al2O3 were investigated in hydrogen production via the oxidative steam reforming of methanol (OSRM). Their physicochemical properties were extensively studied using various methods such as BET, TPR-H2, TPD-NH3, XRD, SEM-EDS, ToF-SIMS and XPS. The reactivity measurements showed that the active phase and support composition played an important role in the activity of the catalyst in the OSRM. The most active system at higher temperatures was 30% Cu–10% Ni/CeO2·Al2O3, with high catalytic activity attributed to the Cu0.8Ni0.2 alloy formation. In addition, the reactivity results showed that the most active catalyst exhibited high acidity and was easily reduced. At low temperatures, the best catalytic properties were exhibited by 30% Cu–10% Ni/ZrO2·Al2O3. The reactivity and physicochemical properties of the studied catalysts confirmed the crucial role of alloy composition on their catalytic properties in the oxy-steam reforming of methanol. The obtained results validate the possibility of using Cu-Ni catalysts for hydrogen production.