Deactivation and regeneration behaviors of copper spinel–alumina composite catalysts in steam reforming of dimethyl ether

The durability of composite catalysts of CuFe2O4 and γ-Al2O3 was investigated during steam reforming (SR) of dimethyl ether (DME). Partial degradation of the composites proceeded due to the concomitant effect of copper sintering and carbon formation. The catalyst degraded after SR for 1100 h was regenerated by calcination in air in the temperature range of 500–700 °C; redispersion of copper via spinel formation and simultaneous carbon burning were achieved. The apparent activation energy for DME SR over the catalyst was estimated to be in the range of 150–160 kJ mol−1 and remained almost stable during the DME SR reaction test for 1100 h. Degradation of the catalyst was found to follow first-order kinetics with a deactivation rate constant of 0.95×10−3 h−10.95×10−3 h−1.