An Investigation into the Performance of the Steam Reforming of Methanol over Cu/ZnO/H-Mordenite Nanocatalyst

This paper investigates the impacts of Cu/ZnO/H-Mordenite (40/40/20%) catalyst on the steam reforming of methanol (SRM) in a fixed bed reactor. The structure of the deposition- precipitation made catalyst was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. The GC–MS analysis confirmed that methanol fuel was converted mainly to H2 and CO2 compounds. Results showed that the methanol conversion and H2 selectivity of Cu/ZnO/H-Mordenite (40/40/20%) were 80.48 % and 81.17 %, respectively and as a result its H2 yield was 65.32%. The high performance of the Cu/ZnO/H-Mordenite (40/40/20%) catalyst may be attributed to the strong interaction of Cu/ZnO species which lead to high Cu/ZnO dispersion and smaller particle size