Lowering the O2/CH3OH ratio in autothermal reforming of methanol by using a reduced copper-based catalyst

Steam reforming of methanol with copper-based catalysts is well-known for hydrogen production. Copper-based catalysts can also be used with autothermal reformation. This paper presents data using a copper-based catalyst for an autothermal reformer. The copper-based catalyst required a relatively small amount of air as compared with the noble metal catalysts typically used in autothermal reformation. This is beneficial on account of the minimization of product dilution by nitrogen and in the future may allow hybrid operation of the reformer to minimize transient response. O2/CH3OH ratios need to be well adapted in order to balance between the exothermic/endothermic reactions and corresponding heat loss. In this study different fuel flow rates and O2/CH3OH ratios were investigated using both reduced and unreduced copper-based catalysts. Multiple start-up and shut-down cycles were applied to estimate the effect of thermal loading on the copper-based catalysts and short term degradation was monitored by observing changes in conversion with time. The reduced copper catalyst outperformed the unreduced copper catalyst in degradation and the autothermal reforming of methanol with copper-based catalysts required significantly less oxygen than noble metal catalysts.