Oar-Arteta L., Epron F., Bion N., Aguayo A., Gayubo A., 2014, Comparison in Dimethyl Ether Steam Reforming of Conventional Cu-ZnO-Al2O3 and Supported Pt Metal Catalysts, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 37, 487-492.
The catalytic performance of platinum based catalysts supported on CeO2/Al2O3 (with different proportion of both oxides) was compared to the conventional Cu-ZnO-Al2O3 (CZA) catalyst for methanol steam reforming (MeOH-SR), which is the second stage in the dimethyl ether steam reforming (SRD) process for obtaining H2. The catalytic performances of Pt based catalysts were notably influenced by the addition of CeO2 to the support: a higher content of CeO2 improved the catalyst activity and selectivity to H2, and limited to some extent CO and CH4 formation. At low temperatures (below 350 °C), the copper based CZA catalyst provided the best results in MeOH-SR, but at high temperature (350-500 °C) Pt/CeO2 and CZA showed similar catalytic performance. Consequently, Pt/CeO2 can be envisioned as a proper metallic function to be used in the bifunctional catalyst for SRD together with ??-Al2O3 acid function, which requires temperatures above 350 °C for attaining high conversion in dimethyl ether hydrolysis.
