Activity and durability of water-gas shift catalysts used for the steam reforming of methanol

Commercially available water-gas shift catalysts were tested for methanol steam reforming in small-scale packed bed reactors at atmospheric pressure. The results showed that while the initial activity of chromia or zinc oxide catalysts was lower than that of copper-based catalysts, the durability of the chromia preparations was far superior to that of the copper-based samples at the temperatures investigated. Kinetic modeling suggested that copper and zinc oxide catalysts have deactivated by sintering of the metal phase; instead, the deactivation of chromia catalysts is consistent with feed poisoning. A zinc oxide/chromia catalyst was among the most active, and it certainly was the most stable, catalyst tested.