Metal CuxNiy /2Titania- Ceria Catalysts for Effective Syngas Production in Methanol Steam Reforming

Chuang Bao1

Xianglei Liu1,2,*,Email

Zhonghui Zhu1

Tong Wang1

Hangbin Zheng1

Chao Song1

Qiao Xu1

Ke Gao1

Yang Tian1

Qingyang Luo1

Chunzhuo Dang1 

Haichen Yao1

1 School of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210016, China

2 Key Laboratory of Thermal Management and Energy Utilization of Aviation Vehicles, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, Jiangsu, 210016, China

Abstract

Methanol steam reforming (MSR) is often used in hydrogen production and hydrogen-rich syngas at low temperature. In this work, a series of CuxNiy/2TiO2-CeO2 binary active metal catalysts are proposed for effective syngas production in MSR. It can be achieved that methanol conversion of Ni-containing catalysts is generally higher than that of Cu-based catalyst, and the improvement of active metal Ni on methanol conversion is better than that of active metal Cu in the whole reaction process at low temperature. It can be found from characterization results that Cu contributes to the increase of oxygen vacancy and promotion of active sites, and Ni can adjust the active metal size and stabilize the reaction process. During the experimental process, Ni-containing catalyst is more inclined to methanol decomposition reaction for producing CO, and the increase of the Ni content leads to an increase in CO production and decrease in CO2 production. This work proves that CuxNiy/2TiO2-CeO2 catalysts have a higher methanol conversion than Cu-based catalysts. Furthermore, by adjusting the composition of CuxNiy/2TiO2-CeO2 catalysts and the corresponding reaction temperature, an appropriate H2/CO ratio can be obtained to produce the required syngas. This study provides an efficient method aimed at obtaining suitable H2/CO syngas.