international journal of hydrogen energy 33 (2008) 45694576

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Synthesis and characterization of bimetallic CuNi/ZrO2 nanocatalysts: H2 production by oxidative steam reforming of methanol
rez-Hernandeza,*, G. Mondrago Galiciaa, D. Mendoza Anayaa, J. Palaciosa, n R. Pe b C. Angeles-Chavez , J. Arenas-Alatorrec
xico-Toluca S/N La Marquesa, Ocoyoacac, Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares; Carretera Me xico C.P. 52750, Mexico Estado de Me b leo, Eje Central La zaro Ca rdenas, Programa de Ingeniera Molecular, Instituto Mexicano del Petro xico D.F., Mexico No. 152, C.P. 07730, Me c xico D.F., Mexico Instituto de Fsica-UNAM, Apartado Postal 20-364, C.P. 01000, Me
a

article info
Article history: Received 19 May 2008 Received in revised form 11 June 2008 Accepted 13 June 2008 Available online 22 August 2008 Keywords: CuNi/ZrO2 catalysts Bimetallic nanocatalysts H2 production Oxidative steam reforming of methanol HRTEM STEMEDX TPR

abstract
Cu/ZrO2, Ni/ZrO2 and bimetallic CuNi/ZrO2 catalysts were prepared by deposition precipitation method to produce hydrogen by oxidative steam reforming of methanol (OSRM) reaction in the range of 250360  C. TPR analysis of the CuNi/ZrO2 catalyst showed that the presence of Cu facilitates the reduction of the Ni at lower temperatures. In addition, this sample showed two reduction peaks, the former peak was attributed to the reduction of the adjacent Cu and Ni atoms which could be forming a bimetallic Cu-rich phase, and the second was assigned to the remaining Ni atoms forming bimetallic Nirich nanoparticles. Transmission Electron Microscopy revealed Cu or Ni nanoparticles on the monometallic samples, while bimetallic nanoparticles were identied on the CuNi/ ZrO2 catalyst. On the other hand, CuNi/ZrO2 catalyst exhibited better catalytic activity than the monometallic samples. The difference between them was related to the CuNi nanoparticles present on the former catalyst, as well as the bifunctional role of the bimetallic phase and the support that improve the catalytic activity. All the catalysts showed the same selectivity toward H2 at the maximum reaction temperature and it was w60%. The high selectivity toward CO is associated to the presence of the bimetallic Ni-rich nanoparticles, as evidenced by TEMEDX analysis, since this behavior is similar to the one showed by the monometallic Ni-catalyst. 2008 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1.

Introduction

The PEM (proton-exchange membrane) fuel cell generally requires H2 as fuel; there are various strategies for on board

storage of H2 in the vehicle: gas compressed, liquid, H2 storage materials such as metal hydrides and carbon nanotubes. However, all these options require a dedicated lling station infrastructure which raises issues concerning safety and

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 52 55 53297239; fax: 52 55 53297240. E-mail address: raul.perez@inin.gob.mx (R. Perez-Hernandez). 0360-3199/$ see front matter 2008 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2008.06.019

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cost. Olah [1] put forth a convincing case for why the chemical storage of hydrogen in the form of methanol offers distinct advantages over alternate means. The main advantage of liquid fuels is their high energy density and ease of handling, and the fact that they can be used for the on-demand production of hydrogen for fuel cells, with applications in mobile and stationary grid-independent power systems. Methanol is readily available and can be catalytically reformed into an H2-rich gas at moderated temperature (200400  C). Methanol has high H/C ratio and no CC bonds, hence minimizing the risk for coke formation. Moreover, as methanol can be produced from renewable sources, its reforming does not contribute to a net addition of CO2 to the atmosphere. Consequently, there are three processes available for H2 production using methanol as a H2 source: Steam reforming of methanol (SRM-endothermic reaction) CH3 OH H2 O / CO2 3H2 (1)

2.
2.1. 2.1.1.

Experimental
Preparation of catalytic materials Support

Partial oxidation of methanol (POM-exothermic reaction) CH3 OH 1=2O2 / CO2 2H2 (2)

ZrO2 was prepared by a solgel method from Zirconium(IV) propoxide (Fluka) as a precursor in n-propanol (Aldrich) solution and acid catalyst (HNO3Baker) with constant stirring. The solution was processed at room temperature, and the deionized water was added dropwise to complete hydrolysis. The molar ratio used for the synthesis was: propoxide/ alcohol/H2O/HNO3 1:4:4:0.33 [18]. After the hydrolysis reaction the temperature was increased at reux and held for 50 min, then cooled at room temperature. The mixture was aged for 24 h and the residual liquid was removed by decanting. A xerogel was obtained after heating at 100  C for 24 h. The xerogel was rst heated 1 h at 100  C under an air stream and then calcined at 650  C for 5 h.

Oxidative Steam Reforming of Methanol (OSRM is a combination of SRM and POM) CH3 OH 1=2H2 O 1=4O2 / CO2 5=2H2 (3)

2.1.2. Catalysts preparation by depositionprecipitation with urea

One gram of ZrO2 was added to 100 ml of an aqueous solution at pH z 2 and 4.2 M of urea with constant stirring. Cu(CH3CO2)2$H2O (Merck) or NiCl2$6H2O at an appropriate concentration was incorporated at the suspension to yield 3 wt% of copper and nickel, respectively, in the monometallic catalysts. For bimetallic sample the concentration of Ni and Cu was 1.5 wt% of each one of the metal to obtain 3 wt% of total metallic phase. The temperature of the suspension was increased at 80  C for 20 h, and as the urea was decomposed the pH was increased. Then the solids were recovered by centrifugation and washed with deionized water and centrifuged again. This procedure was repeated 4 times. After that, the solids were dried at 100  C for 24 h. The catalysts were calcined as follows: at 100  C for 1 h and then the temperature was increased at 300  C for 2 h in air and cooled at room temperature, next, the catalysts were reduced with H2 (5%)/He (60 ml/min) at 600  C for 2 h. The actual Cu and Ni contents were determined by ICP and they were 2.80% of Cu in Cu/ZrO2 catalyst, 2.44% of Ni in the Ni/ZrO2 catalyst, and for bimetallic CuNi/ZrO2 sample the Cu and Ni were 1.47 and 1.03%, respectively.

In the literature, copper based catalysts have received considerable attention for H2 production by SRM [25]. Other catalysts that have been extensively studied in the important reforming industrial process for syngas production are nickel-based catalysts; this reaction also allows the conversion of two undesirable greenhouse gases like CH4 and CO2 [68]. However, the studies related with Ni-catalysts in the steam reforming of liquid products mainly used ethanol (SRE) as an H2 source [913]. Oxidative steam reforming of methanol has not been extensively studied, but initial results indicate low carbon monoxide and high hydrogen concentration in the products [14]. Velu et al. [15] studied the OSRM reaction and found that the ZrO2-containing catalysts are the best for H2 production with low CO levels. Agrell et al. [16] studied the SRM, POM and OSRM reaction and found in the OSRM reaction low CO levels with the following selectivity toward H2: SRM > OSRM > POM. They observed that the addition of O2 to the SRM reaction appears to be an effective way to decrease the CO content in the product. Navarro et al. [17] studied the oxidative reforming of hexadecane over Ni and Pt catalysts supported on Ce/La-doped Al2O3. They found for both Ni and Pt catalysts, higher specic activity when active metals were supported on alumina modied with cerium and lanthanum. However, the catalytic activity and H2 selectivity observed on Ni-based catalysts were higher than on Pt-based catalysts. The goal of this work was to develop new inexpensive Cu/ ZrO2, Ni/ZrO2 and Cu-Ni/ZrO2 catalysts by deposition precipitation for oxidative steam reforming of methanol to produce H2-rich gas at relatively lower temperature. Catalysts characterization included BET (N2 adsorptiondesorption), SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), EDX (Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy), XRD (X-ray Diffraction), TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) and TPR (Temperature Programmed Reduction).

2.2.

Characterization

Total surface area was calculated by the BET method from N2 adsorption by the single point method using a N2 (30%)/He gas mixture, recorded at liquid nitrogen temperature in a RIG-100 multitask from ISR INC. X-ray diffraction (XRD) powder patterns were recorded in a Siemens D-5000 diffractometer, using Cu Ka (l 0.15406 nm). The morphology and chemical composition analysis of the samples were performed in a LVSEM (Low Vacuum Scanning Electron Microscopy) JEOL JSM5900LV tted with an Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer (OXFORD). The analysis was performed in equipment conditions of 20 kV and 20 Pa of pressure. The images were obtained with the backscattering electron signal. Before the analysis, the samples were xed on an aluminum specimen holder with aluminum tape. A Transmission Electron

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Microscope (TEM) JEOL JEM 2010 with resolution point to point of 0.23 nm was used to determine the structure and lattice parameters of the metallic nanoparticles on the support. HRTEM and local chemical analysis of the bimetallic nanoparticles were carried out in a microscope JEM 2200FS with a resolution of 0.19 nm which has been tted with an energy dispersive X-ray Spectrometer (NORAN). The chemical analysis was made using the Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM)-EDX technique since the STEM mode led us obtain a better control of the small probe size (less than 1 nm of diameter). The samples were prepared in a solution with isopropanol and a drop was put on copper or gold grids. Temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) experiments were carried out on an automatic multitask unit RIG-100 from ISR INC equipped with a Thermal Conductivity Detector (TCD) with output to a computer. The oxidized catalyst (0.1 g) was placed in the reactor and purged with UHP Ar at room temperature and then the TPR measurement was performed using H2 (5%)/Ar gas mixture (30 ml/min). The temperature was increased at a rate of 10  C/min from room temperature to 700  C. The efuent gas was passed through silica gel to remove water before measuring the amount of hydrogen consumed during the reduction by the TCD. The signal was calibrated by 0.5 ml pulses of UHP H2 (5%)/Ar at the end of the experiment. After testing the catalytic reaction, the catalyst was cleaned by He stream (30 ml/min) for 30 min at 360  C and cooled at room temperature, after this the sample was purged with UHP Ar ow and the TPR was performed.

SCO %

nCO2-out 100 nCO2-out nCOout CH4-out

(5)

The subscripts in and out indicate the inlet and the outlet concentrations of the reactants or products.

3.
3.1.

Results and discussion

Textural and structural properties

2.3.

Catalytic reaction

The steady-state activity in the oxidative steam reforming of methanol reaction was performed in a conventional xedbed ow reactor (8 mm i.d.) using 0.1 g of the catalyst in a temperature range from 250 to 360  C with 4 h stabilization time at each temperature and atmospheric pressure, with a thermocouple in contact with the catalytic bed allowing the control of the temperature inside the catalyst on an automatic multitask unit RIG-100. The catalyst was rst activated in a stream of H2 (5%)/He (60 ml/min) from room temperature to 300  C with a heating rate of 10  C/min and held at this temperature for 1 h. The catalyst was brought up to the reaction temperature in He and the reaction mixture was introduced. For the OSRM reaction, O2 (5%)/He mixture was used and the total ow rate was kept at 50 ml/min (GHSV 30,000 h1 based on the total ow) and added by means of a mass ow controller (RIG-100) and bubbled through a tank containing mixture of water and methanol, the partial pressure of CH3OH, H2O and O2 was 75, 12.75 and 25.2 Torr, respectively. The efuent gas of the reactor was analyzed by gas chromatography using TCD. A 2-m packed Porapack Q column able to separate water, methanol, methyl formate (MF) and CO2 was used. The gaseous products such as H2, O2, CH4 and CO were separated with a molecular sieve of 5 A. The following equations were used to determine the methanol conversion and selectivity: Cin Cout 100; Cin nH2-out SH2 % 100 nH2-out nCH4-out nH2 Oout X%

The surface area calculated by the BET method from N2 adsorptiondesorption by the single point method of the bare ZrO2 was 30 m2/g, after the incorporation of the active phase on the ZrO2 support, the surface area was slightly increased to 33, 34 and 35 m2/g for Cu/ZrO2, Ni/ZrO2 and Cu Ni/ZrO2 catalysts, respectively. This slight increment of the surface area could be attributed to the partial dissolution of the ZrO2 support by the acid medium when the active phase was impregnated. During the centrifuged, drying and thermal treatments the dissolved material would be reprecipitated as smaller particles, so accounting for the increase in the surface area. Fig. 1 shows the experimental XRD patterns of the Cu/ ZrO2 and Ni/ZrO2 catalysts. Diffraction pattern of metallic copper and nickel as well as diffraction peaks of the monoclinic ZrO2 phase were observed. Cu, Ni or CuNi alloy were not observed by XRD in the CuNi/ZrO2 catalyst. After catalytic reaction, the CuNi/ZrO2 sample showed a similar diffraction pattern to the pre-reaction catalyst. The morphology of the three catalysts was analyzed by LVSEM and a typical image of the CuNi/ZrO2 catalyst, is illustrated on Fig. 2. All the samples studied exhibited nanoparticles approximately 150 nm contained in large spongy clusters. However, nanoparticles with semispherical morphology approximately 10 nm of diameter deposited on the surface of the ZrO2 crystalline were revealed by TEM technique. Ni nanoparticles of w10 nm of diameter were observed on the Ni/ZrO2 catalyst (Fig. 3a). Fig. 3b shows the TEM results of the bimetallic CuNi/ZrO2 sample. The bright eld STEM image of the CuNi/ZrO2 catalyst shows good dispersion of

l l l l ll l l ll Ni/ZrO2

ll

l l l l l l ll l l

Intensity (a.u.)

x2

Cu-Ni/ZrO2 rxn

Cu-Ni/ZrO2

20 30 40 50 60 70

Cu/ZrO2 80 90

2 (theta)
4 Fig. 1 XRD patterns of the Cu/Ni/ZrO2 catalysts before and after catalytic activity. (l)-monoclinic-ZrO2, (B)-Cu, (*)-Ni.

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Fig. 2 SEM image of the fresh bimetallic CuNi/ZrO2 catalyst.

the metal-containing nanoparticles. These images seem to indicate a bimodal size distribution with a large grouping of particles around 10 nm. In order to elucidate the chemical composition of these nanoparticles the EDX analysis was performed on it. Inset EDX spectrum in Fig. 3b, carried out in the nanoparticles with 10 nm of diameter, clearly showed the presence of Cu and Ni elements. These results reveal the bimetallic nature of this system and they have the following composition: 18% of the nanoparticles have a Ni/Cu w 4.6, 41% have a Ni/Cu w 1.7, 29% have a Ni/Cu w 1, 6% have a Ni/ Cu w 0.6 and 6% have a Ni/Cu w 0.25 weight ratio, respectively. Cu nanoparticles on the Cu/ZrO2 catalyst were not found during the TEM analysis, however, it was present in the samples as was identied by EDX analysis, inset spectrum in Fig. 3c.

3.2.

Temperature-programmed reduction

closer to the monometallic Cu/ZrO2 catalyst but far from the reduction peak observed on Ni/ZrO2 sample. This study clearly exhibits differences in the interactions between Cu/Ni species on the surface of the zirconia when they are together, and could be explained as follows: during the TPR test, Cu probably causes spillover of hydrogen onto the Ni inducing a concurrent reduction of both copper oxide and NiO. For that, the presence of Cu lowered the reduction temperature of Ni. A similar result was reported by Arenas-Alatorre et al. [23] in the TPR experiments on the PtNi/SiO2 catalysts, they observed that the presence of the Pt in the bimetallic catalysts contributes to facilitate the reduction of the NiO. On the other hand, Vizcano et al. [24] in the bimetallic CuNi/SiO2 catalyst reported reduction peaks between 200 and 260  C. The peak at low temperature was assigned to CuO reduction and the other was attributed to NiO reduction. A detailed analysis of TPR prole and the results of TEM and HRTEM techniques suggested that the rst reduction peak of the bimetallic catalyst could be attributed to the reduction of adjacent Cu and Ni atoms, which could be forming a bimetallic phase. The second reduction peak could be assigned to the remaining Ni atoms forming Ni-rich nanoparticles. This proposal could be supported with the results from HRTEM technique. Fig. 5 shows HRTEM image of a nanoparticle deposited on the zirconia support from Cu Ni/ZrO2 catalyst. The atomic interplanar distance measured in the nanoparticle was 0.207 nm which corresponds to the cubic system of the bimetallic Cu0.81Ni0.19 phase in (111) plane with the unit cell parameter a 0.3593 nm according to the JCPDS card number 471406. Chemical analysis carried out by EDX revealed strongly Cu and Ni elements. Samples post-reaction also was characterized by TPR technique, and their experimental proles show a tiny broad H2 consumption at low temperatures with long tail extending to higher temperature than fresh catalysts. These results suggest that the gas stream causes small oxidation in the active phase having highly dispersed nickel and copper oxides species on the catalysts at w220300  C and 200  C, respectively [2,22,2529].

Fig. 4 shows the TPR proles of the fresh Cu/Ni/ZrO2 catalysts calcined at 300  C and the samples after catalytic reaction. Reduction peaks observed on the catalysts at temperatures below 350  C were associated to the reduction of CuO and NiO particles. The peak above 500  C observed on the three samples is related to the reduction of hydroxycarbonates species (identied by FTIR, Figure not shown) which originate from the urea decomposition during the synthesis of the samples and remain present on the surface after calcinations. TPR prole of the fresh NiO/ZrO2 sample shows a peak at 320  C indicating that NiO is reduced to metallic Ni. Literature reports that large NiO particles with lower interaction with the ZrO2 on the Ni/ZrO2 catalyst could be reduced at low temperature [1921]. The reduction of CuO supported on ZrO2 shows two peaks at 200 and 250  C indicating the existence of two different kinds of CuO species. Highly dispersed copper oxide and CuO bulk were present on the Cu/ZrO2 sample [22]. TPR prole of the bimetallic catalyst showed a similar behavior like on the fresh Cu/ZrO2 sample, although Ni was also present on the catalyst. On this sample a shoulder at 212 and a peak at 225  C were observed, these temperatures are

3.3. Catalytic performance on the oxidative steam reforming of methanol (OSRM) reaction
Fig. 6 shows the catalytic behavior of Cu/Ni/ZrO2 catalysts during OSRM reaction at different temperatures. In the Cu/ ZrO2 catalyst, the conversion of methanol was 11% at the beginning of the reaction (250  C) and increased as temperature was raised, and at 300  C the consumption of methanol was w50%. Additional temperature increase did not result in an increase in methanol conversion. However, when copper was supported on ceria, 100% of methanol conversion at 260  C was reported on catalysts with <6% of copper [25]. This effect is caused by the modication in feed concentrations of fuel, oxygen or steam [30]. On the Ni/ZrO2 sample, the conversion of methanol in the range of 250300  C was <14%. After this temperature the methanol conversion reached w100% at 350  C. Vizcano et al. [24] reported a similar behavior during SR of ethanol reaction. They observed high catalytic activity on Ni/SiO2 sample than Cu/SiO2 catalyst. In the case of the bimetallic CuNi/ZrO2 catalyst, the catalytic activity was higher than the monometallic samples in almost

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Fig. 3 TEM image of: (a) Ni/ZrO2, (b) bright eld STEM image of the CuNi/ZrO2, (c) Cu/ZrO2 catalysts.

all ranges of the reaction temperature with nearly complete conversion reached by 350  C. In the literature there are no studies associated with the steam reforming of methanol reaction on the bimetallic CuNi catalysts. However, some reports related with the catalytic activity of the bimetallic NiCu catalysts in the steam reforming (SR) and oxidative steam reforming (OSR) have been done only with ethanol [11,12,31]. Gallucci et al. [32] reported that the SR of methanol is more suitable than SR of ethanol for hydrogen production. Marino et al. [11,12] studied the effect of the nickel content in the Cu/Al2O3 samples on the steam reforming of ethanol reaction. They found that the conversion of the catalysts improves when nickel content increases. This behavior was attributed to the addition of Ni which favors the segregation of Cu2 ions to the catalytic surface and enhances the ethanol conversion. In other report, the catalytic activity was related

with the high metal dispersion [26]. In our case, besides the dispersion and segregation of metallic ions, the best catalytic activity observed in the CuNi/ZrO2 sample was associated to the presence of the bimetallic phase nanoparticles on the zirconia support. Because of the Cu/ZrO2 and Ni/ZrO2 catalysts only Cu or Ni nanoparticles were identied, and their catalytic activity was lesser at low temperatures than in bimetallic catalyst. Thus the bimetallic alloy of the two metals can be used efciently as an active phase during OSRM reaction. In addition, the bifunctional role of the bimetallic phase with the ZrO2 had an important function in the catalytic activity. Agrell et al. [16] reported that Cu/ZnO/ZrO2 catalyst exhibits high activity for methanol conversion due to the high Zr/Cu ratio which favors the possible copper-support interaction increasing the bifunctional role between the active phases and the ZrO2 benecial for the reaction, in addition zirconia

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245 306 320

Ni/ZrO2 post-reaction 550

100

Methanol conversion (%)

H2 Consumption (a.u.)

Ni/ZrO2

80 60 40 20 0 250

Cu/ZrO2 Cu-Ni/ZrO2 Ni/ZrO2

187 212 177 200 250 100 200 300 225

Cu-Ni/ZrO2 post-reaction Cu-Ni/ZrO2 550 Cu/ZrO2 post-reaction Cu/ZrO2 571 400 500 600

270

290

310

330

350

Temperature (C)
Fig. 4 Temperature-programmed reduction proles of the fresh catalysts (solid line), samples after catalytic reaction (thin line).

Temperature C
Fig. 6 Effect of temperature on the catalytic performance in the oxidative steam reforming of methanol over Cu/Ni/ ZrO2 catalysts. Partial pressure of CH3OH, H2O and O2 was 75, 12.75 and 25.2 Torr, respectively. GHVS [ 30,000 hL1.

avoids the deactivation of the catalyst by coke deposition during the reaction and formation of CO. It is worth noting a better correlation between catalytic conversion and the reduction of the samples at low temperature. In this case the most active catalysts had the lower temperature reduction peaks. The main products of the OSRM reaction from Cu/Ni/ZrO2 catalysts were H2, CO, CO2 and H2O. A few quantity of methyl formate as by-product of the reaction was observed in three samples. Methane was also produced in small amount on the Ni/ZrO2 and CuNi/ZrO2 catalysts. Fig. 7 showed the distribution of hydrogen on the Cu/Ni/ZrO2 catalysts and it could be produced by means of Eqs. (6)(10) and (12). The selectivity of the Cu/ZrO2 catalyst at 250  C was w30% and 0% for the other

samples. When the temperature was increased up to 300  C it was observed that the H2 selectivity was also increased, after this temperature it remained essentially unchanged on the three samples. However, it can be observed that the methanol conversion increased after 300  C on the Ni-based catalysts (Fig. 6) but the H2 did not raise, this result could be explained by the oxidation of the H2 with O2 (Eq. (13)) [25] or another possibility by means of Eq. (14). Thus stable hydrogen productions over 60% were obtained for the Cu/Ni/ZrO2 catalysts. At the beginning of the reaction all samples showed high CO2 selectivity, Fig. 8. However, as the reaction temperature increases from 250 to 350  C the CO2 production decreases, this effect could be correlated by rWGS reaction (Eq. (14)) in the Ni-content samples. Nevertheless, another possibility to obtain CO as by-product of the reaction is from methanol decomposition at higher temperatures (Eq. (15)), so CO2 production decreases. Between them, the catalyst which showed high methanol conversion also had faster drop in the CO2 selectivity than the other samples. However, on the monometallic Cu/ZrO2 catalyst only w10% of CO2 was lost at
100

H2 Selectivity (mol %)

80 60 40 20 0 250

Cu/ZrO2 Cu-Ni/ZrO2 Ni/ZrO2

270

290

310

330

350

Temperature (C)
Fig. 7 H2 selectivity as a function of reaction temperature. Partial pressure of CH3OH, H2O and O2 was 75, 12.75 and 25.2 Torr, respectively. GHVS [ 30,000 hL1. The other H containing product was the water and methane.

Fig. 5 HRTEM image of bimetallic nanoparticle deposited on the zirconia of the CuNi/ZrO2 catalyst.

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100

CO2 Selectivity (mol %)

sequence of the reactions can be summarized during OSRM reaction over these Cu/Ni/ZrO2 catalysts: 2CH3 OH Oa / CH3 OCHO H2 O H2 (6)

80 60

2CH3 OH / CH3 OCHO 2H2

40 20 0 250 Cu/ZrO2 Cu-Ni/ZrO2 Ni/ZrO2 270 290 310 330 350

(7)

CH3 OCHO / 2CO 2H2

(8)

CH3 OH 2OHa / CO2 H2 O 2H2

(9)

Temperature (C)
Fig. 8 CO2 selectivity as a function of reaction temperature. Partial pressure of CH3OH, H2O and O2 was 75, 12.75 and 25.2 Torr, respectively. GHVS [ 30,000 hL1. CH3 OH OHa / CO H2 O 3=2H2 (10)

CH3 OCHO / CH4 CO2 the maximum reaction temperature. Fig. 9 shows the CO selectivity of the three catalysts. The CO2 depletion observed on Fig. 8 essentially on the Ni-content samples is due to the change in the selectivity toward CO production, and it can be produced by following Eqs. (8), (10), (12), (14) and (15). Because Ni/ZrO2 catalyst had high CO selectivity in the OSRM reaction, the higher CO production observed on the CuNi/ZrO2 sample could be associated at the presence of bimetallic Ni-rich nanoparticles as was identied by TEM EDX during the study. In addition, the presence of copper on bimetallic sample reduces the CH4 formation. Selectivity toward CH4 is presented in Fig. 9 and could be formed by means of Eq. (11). According to the results and reports on the literature [24,33] the role of our catalysts in the OSRM reaction is: the major reaction intermediates are located on the zirconia while the role of copper and nickel active phase is to promote hydrogen spillover and then release to the feed gas. It is clear that during OSRM reaction, Ni-based catalysts produces relatively high concentration of CO in special on the bimetallic sample, which is still much higher than the upper limit of CO concentration in the feed gas for PEM fuel cells. Thus, the integrated catalyst system with a suitable function that promoted both OSRM and WGS reactions should be developed. The following
100 80 60 40 20 0 250 CH4 270 290 310 330 350

(11)

CH4 H2 O 4 CO 3H2

(12)

H2 1=2O2 / H2 O

(13)

CO2 H2 / CO H2 O

(14)

CH3 OH / CO 2H2

(15)

4.

Conclusions

CO, CH4 Selectivity (mol %)

Cu/ZrO2 Cu-Ni/ZrO2 Ni/ZrO2

Temperature (C)
Fig. 9 CO and CH4 selectivity as a function of reaction temperature. Partial pressure of CH3OH, H2O and O2 was 75, 12.75 and 25.2 Torr, respectively. GHVS [ 30,000 hL1.

In the present study, Cu/ZrO2, Ni/ZrO2 and CuNi/ZrO2 catalysts have been developed for oxidative steam reforming of methanol to produce H2-rich gas at relative lower temperature. The TPR results revealed two different kinds of CuO: (i) highly dispersed CuO species and CuO bulk present on the CuO/ZrO2 catalyst and (ii) free NiO ,i.e., with no metal-support interactions or highly dispersed NiO particles was evidenced in the NiO/ZrO2 sample. The presence of Cu in the bimetallic catalyst facilitates the reduction of Ni at lower temperatures. Copper and nickel metallic nanoparticles on Cu/ZrO2 and Ni/ ZrO2 catalysts were observed by TEM, while bimetallic nanoparticles with different Cu/Ni weight ratios were identied on the CuNi/ZrO2 sample. The steady-state activity showed that the Ni-based catalyst was more effective than the Cubased sample when was supported on ZrO2 for the OSRM reaction at higher temperatures, indicating that Ni-based catalysts is better for this reaction. The CuNi/ZrO2 catalyst showed the best catalytic performance at low temperatures than the monometallic samples. This behavior was attributed to the bimetallic nanoparticles present on the surface of the catalyst that improves the bifunctional effect between the active bimetallic phase and the support during the OSRM reaction. All the catalysts showed the same selectivity toward H2 at the maximum reaction temperature and it was w60%. The high selectivity toward CO observed on the CuNi/ZrO2 sample is associated to the presence of the Ni-rich bimetallic nanoparticles, as evidenced by TEM and EDX analysis, since

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this behavior is similar to the one showed by the monometallic Ni-catalyst.

Acknowledgements
Thanks to I.Q. Albina Gutierrez Martnez, Jorge Perez and Luis Rendon for technical support and to the project ININ-CA-711 and CONACYT J-48924 for nancial support.

references

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