Hydrogen production via steam reforming of methanol over Cu/(Ce,Gd)O2−x catalysts

Hydrogen production via steam reforming of methanol is carried out over Cu/(Ce,Gd)O2−x catalysts at 210–600 °C. The CO content in reformate is about 1% at 210–270 °C, which are the typical temperature for hydrogen production via steam reforming of methanol. Largest H2 yield and CO2 selectivity and smallest CO content are obtained at 240 °C. The formation rate of CO increases with increasing temperature. The average formation rate of CO becomes larger than that of CO2 at about 450 °C. The H2 yield, the CO2 selectivity and the CO content become constant at about 550 °C. At 240 °C, the smallest CO content is obtained with a catalyst weight of 0.5 g and a Cu content of 3 wt%. The H2 yield, defined as H2/(CO + CO2) in formation rates, at 240 °C is always 3 and not affected by the variations of either the catalyst weight or the Cu content.