Hydrogen production from integrated methanol reforming over Cu-ZnO/Al₂O₃ and Pt/Al₂O₃ catalysts for PEM fuel cells

A fuel processor was designed based on integrated oxidative steam reforming of methanol that can achieve efficient production of H₂ with minimum CO (<30 ppm CO) in a single reactor for proton-exchange membrane fuel cell application. The methanol reforming reaction was performed over four different commercial Cu/Zn/Al catalysts at 180°-275°C. At a reaction temperature of ≥ 230°C, all catalysts showed similar activity. For a given catalyst, the activity increased with reaction temperature. When the reaction temperature reached 230°C, methanol conversion over the Sud Chemie catalysts exceeded 95%.