Steam reforming of methanol over Cu/CeO2/ZrO2 catalysts

Steam reforming of methanol was carried out over CuO/CeO2-based catalysts. The optimum amount of CuO in CuO/CeO2 was 80 wt.%. The addition of ZrO2 had an accelerating effect; the best weight ratio of CuO/CeO2/ZrO2 was 8/1/1. Although CuO/CeO2 gradually lost its activity during the reaction, no deactivation was observed for CuO/ZrO2 or CuO/CeO2/ZrO2 during the reaction for 5 h. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that copper was present in the form of Cu2O during the reaction when combined with ZrO2, mainly as Cu metal with CeO2, and as a mixture of Cu metal plus trace amount of Cu2O with CeO2/ZrO2. TPR and XANES analyses also showed that all of Cu species were stabilized as Cu2O in the presence of ZrO2. The synergistic effect of ZrO2 was discussed.