Effects of precipitation aging time on the performance of CuO/ZnO/CeO2-ZrO2 for methanol steam reforming

CuO/ZnO/CeO2-ZrO2 catalysts for methanol steam reforming (MSR) were prepared by a co-precipitation procedure, and the effects of precipitation aging time on the catalytic performance were investigated. It was found that the prolonged precipitation aging time increased the surface Cu atoms and improved the reducibility of catalyst, but decreased the oxygen storage capacity. A nearly linear increase between the surface Cu atoms and H2 production rate was obtained in prepared CuO/ZnO/CeO2-ZrO2 catalysts with prolonged precipitation aging time. However, CO concentration increased with the decrease of the oxygen storage capacity. Considering the H2 production rate and CO level, the optimal precipitation aging time was 2 h. CuO/ZnO/CeO2-ZrO2 prepared using this aging time exhibited the best activity with suppressed CO formation.