Hydrogen production by ethanol decomposition and partial oxidation over copper/copper-chromite based catalysts prepared by combustion synthesis

The catalytic generation by ethanol decomposition and partial oxidation over copper-chromite and copper-zinc catalyst supported on alumina has been investigated. The catalysts have been prepared by the method of combustion synthesis, characterized by a fast heating rate and a short reaction time, leading to increase catalyst porosity and total surface area. The catalytic activity and selectivity have been investigated without O2 and under various O2 and C2H5OH molar ratio in the temperature range up to 500 °C. It was found that copper chromite supported on alumina shows the best activity and hydrogen selectivity during ethanol decomposition. The selectivity decreased during partial oxidation but with a low O2/EtOH = 0.6 molar ratio at 300 °C, a hydrogen rich mixture (35–40%) was obtained. The use of relatively low amount of oxygen is necessary to reduce coke formation, which causes catalyst deactivation. The catalysts were characterized by ex situ methods such as XRD, BET, XPS, and in situ EXAFS and FTIR with the aim to evaluate their physico-chemical properties and to correlate them with the catalysts performance.