SMSI-like behavior and Ni promotion effect on NiZnAl catalysts in steam reforming of methanol

A series of NiZnAl catalysts have been developed for the hydrogen production by methanol steam reforming within microchannel reactor. These catalysts were characterized by N2 adsorption-desorption, X-ray diffraction, H2-TPR and pulse H2-chemisorption. Our results show that the coexistence of Ni and Zn in bimetallic catalysts results in superior catalytic performance for hydrogen production compared with monometallic catalysts, despite the fact the former possesses the lower surface area. The difference between the catalytic performances could mainly be attributed to the Ni promotion effect associated with SMSI-like geometric effects and interpreted by a hypothesized encapsulation model corroborated by the characterizations.

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► The Ni addition promoted drastically the catalytic activity in methanol reforming.
► The enhanced catalytic performance was associated with SMSI-like geometric effect.
► A hypothesized encapsulation model was corroborated by the results obtained.