Steam reforming of methanol over copper-manganese spinel oxide catalysts

The steam reforming of methanol was studied over a series of copper-manganese spinel oxide catalysts prepared with the urea-nitrate combustion method. All catalysts showed high activity towards H2 production with high selectivity. Synthesis parameters affected catalyst properties and, among the catalysts tested, the one prepared with 75% excess of urea and an atomic ratio Cu/(Cu + Mn) = 0.30 showed the highest activity. The results show that formation of the spinel CuxMn3 − xO4 phase in the oxidized catalysts is responsible for the high activity. Cu-Mn catalysts were found to be superior to CuO-CeO2 catalysts prepared with the same technique.