Hydrogen Production from Methanol Steam Reforming over

Abstract: Hydrogen production from steam reforming of methanol was performed in an adiabatic fixed bed heterogeneous reactor by using Cu/ZnO/Al O /CeO /ZrO nanocatalyst. The catalyst was prepared by2 3 2 2 co-precipitation method and characterized by TGA, XRD, SEM and BET. By changing the mean average temperature of the catalyst bed (or reactor operation temperature) from 230 to 270°C, variations in methanol conversion were monitored. The results showed that the conversion of methanol was strongly dependent on the reaction temperature. In addition, the effects of weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) on methanol conversion were investigated. According to the results, the maximum conversion was obtained at 270°C with WHSV of 15 h.1 Key words: Hydrogen production Methanol steam reforming Co-precipitation Nanocatalyst Fixed-bed reactor INTRODUCTION decentralized refueling units for hydrogen-based Catalytic steam reforming of methanol is a hydrogen-based internal combustion engines or PEM fuel well-established process used for the production of cells [5]. hydrogen [1–4]. This process is especially important for There are three process alternatives for the polymer electrolyte fuel-cells, which generate electrical conversion of methanol to hydrogen [8]