Hydrogen is a renewable and clean energy that is considered to be one of the promising energy sources for the future. Methanol represents perfect source for hydrogen production due to its high H/C ratio, possibility to be synthesized from renewable sources such as biomass, and the absence of sulfur. Steam reforming of the methanol (SRM) is more favorable at high temperatures because it is an endothermic reaction. However, SRM at high temperature produces CO due to the side reaction of methanol decomposition, which poisons the Pt electrode in PEMFCs.  This study focuses on the use of bimetallic Cu-Ni catalysts supported on mesoporous TiO2 synthesized using one pot hydrothermal method. The catalysts were characterized using various techniques, such as N2 adsorption-desorption isotherms (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermo-gravimetric and differential calorimetric analysis (TGA-DSC), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), and temperature programmed reduction (TPR). The preliminary characterization results indicate that the synthesized mesoporous titania catalysts yield high surface area in the range 250-350 m2/gm, depending on the total metal loading. The wide angle XRD studies confirmed the existence of the catalytically active anatase phase.SRM studies will be carried out to investigate the effect of metal loading and Cu/Ni weight ratio on the activity and CO selectivity in order to mitigate the CO formation. The catalysts showed activity for  methanol reforming at as low as 150 �C . The results from our ongoing experiments will be presented.References: Tatineni B, Basova Y, Rahman A, et al. Development of Mesoporous Silica Encapsulated Pd-Ni Nanocatalyst for Hydrogen Production in Production and Purification of Ultraclean Transportation Fuels. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society; 2011:178-190

Synthesis and characterization of Cu-Ni/TiO<sub>2</sub> for steam reforming of methanol

247th National Meeting (2014)

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Synthesis and characterization of Cu-Ni/TiO2 for steam reforming of methanol

Synthesis and characterization of Cu-Ni/TiO₂ for steam reforming of methanol