High CO2 Selectivity in Methanol Steam Reforming through ZnPd/ ZnO Teamwork

摘要

Methanol steam reforming (MSR; CH3OH+H2O→ 3H2 + CO2) is considered an important building block in the future energy infrastructure to provide clean hydrogen for fuel cell applications. The suppression of CO is the greatest challenge, as the subsequently used fuel cell catalysts only tolerate CO concentrations of up to 50ppm. Pd/ZnO catalysts have been shown to compete with Cu-based catalysts, and have set benchmarks at about 1000 ppm CO. The formation of the intermetallic compound ZnPd on the ZnO support is held responsible for the high CO2 selectivity. However, no proof of the origin of high CO2 selectivity has been reported thus far.