Steam reforming of methanol over copper-based monoliths: the effects of zirconia doping

In this paper, an experimental investigation concerning steam reforming of methanol over various alumina-supported monolithic copper-based catalysts is presented. The activity and carbon dioxide selectivity was studied over two sets of catalysts, one of which was doped with zirconium, with five different copper contents. The zirconium-doped catalyst were less active with respect to the hydrogen yield, however, they were at all times more selective towards carbon dioxide over the entire temperature interval. The catalysts have been characterised using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area measurement and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show that the copper loading and modification of the active material by zirconia doping had a great influence on the methanol conversion and carbon dioxide selectivity of the steam reforming reaction.