Hydrogen is believed to be crucial for the energy and environmental sustainability. It is considered as a clean energy carrier which can be used for the transportation and stationary power generation when used as fuel for Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Steam reforming of the methanol (SRM) is one of the promising routes for H2 production. However, the reaction still contains CO, a by-product via methanol decomposition. Thus, the design of the catalyst for the steam reforming reactions (SRRs) is critical in terms of reducing the CO formation.We have focussed on the development of the Cu-Ni bimetallic nanoparticles, 5-15%, deposited in  high surface area MCM-41  for SRRs. The catalysts were characterized using 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) studies.. The N2 adsorption-desorption studies showed that the material possessed very high surface area of 650-1100 m2/gm, respectively, depending on the total Cu-Ni loading. The small angle XRD studies confirmed the ordered structure of the MCM-41 with metal loading as high as 15 %. HRTEM studies showed the uniform distribution of the metallic nanoparticles on the surface of MCM-41. The catalysts are being tested for their activity and selectivity for the SRM in a fixed bed reactor. The effect of catalyst composition on CO selectivity and methanol conversion at different operating conditions 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/MCM-41 bimetallic catalysts for steam reforming of methanol

247th National Meeting (2014)

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