methanol steam reforming catalyzing over cu/zn/fe mixed oxide catalysts

methanol steam reforming plays a pivotal role to produce hydrogen for fuel cell systems in a low temperature range. to accomplish higher methanol conversion and lower co production, the reaction was catalyzed by cuznfe mixed oxides. various ratios of fe and cu/zn were coprecipitated in differential method to optimize the cuznfe structure. the sample containing 45cu50zn5fe (wt. %) revealed its maximum methanol conversion of 98.4 % and co selectivity of 0.78 % with operating conditions of gas hourly space velocity of 18000 h-1 and steam to carbon ratio of 1.3 at 270 °c. the synthesized catalysts were analyzed by powder x-ray diffraction, n2 adsorption/desorption, temperature programmed reduction, scanning electron microscopy techniques. the results revealed that the prepared samples presented mesoporous structure with different pore size depending on the cu/zn/fe ratios. the results showed that increase in fe loading to 20 wt. % empowered methanol conversion and decreased co selectivity. moreover, the optimized catalyst activity was kept constant during 17 h time on stream. besides, operating conditions of gas hourly space velocity and steam to carbon ratios were evaluated.