Catalytic activity of various supported Ir-Re catalysts for liquid phase methanol reforming with water

The catalytic activity of various supported Ir-Re catalysts was investigated for the liquid phase reforming reaction of methanol. Although Ir/SiO2 exhibited poor activity for the hydrogen production but the addition of Re enhanced the activity more than one order of magnitude, and reached to the comparable value of Pt-Ru/SiO2. The TOF of H2 formation over Ir-Re/SiO2 catalysts increased with the increase of Re/Ir ratio, accompanied with the increase of the particle sizes of Ir-Re composites. From the investigation of support effect, it was disclosed that CeO2 and ZrO2 enhanced catalytic activity of Ir-Re catalysts significantly.