High porous carbon with Cu/ZnO nanoparticles made by the pyrolysis of carbon material as a catalyst for steam reforming of methanol and dimethyl ether

Abstract Cu/ZnO/carbon catalysts for steam reforming reactions were prepared by the technique to obtain much amount of metals highly dispersed on the porous carbon. The preparation method includes the carbonization of an ion exchange resin loaded with metal cations. By containing ZnO in the resin, the agglomeration of Cu particle during the carbonization was suppressed within the carbon matrix due to the difference in the behavior of carbonization and migration between Cu and Zn in the same ion exchange resin, and the Cu particle size was reduced. Thus, the obtained Cu3Zn1 catalyst had more than double the Cu surface area of the catalyst contained only Cu, regardless of lower Cu content. Methanol steam reforming test showed that the catalysts’ activity was positively correlated with Cu surface area. Also in dimethyl ether (DME) steam reforming reactions using the composite catalysts with γ-Al2O3, the catalytic activity tracked with the surface area covered by Cu. The optimized Cu/ZnO/carbon catalyst composite showed a high DME conversion of 0.87 even at the low temperature of 300 °C and with GHSV = 2000 h−1, which was due to high dispersion of Cu on the micropore structure of carbon support.

[1]  J. W. Evans,et al.  On the determination of copper surface area by reaction with nitrous oxide , 1983 .

[2]  Jinfu Wang,et al.  Steam Reforming of Dimethyl Ether over Coupled Catalysts of CuO-ZnO-Al2O3-ZrO2 and Solid-acid Catalyst , 2009 .

[3]  Ryuji Kikuchi,et al.  Steam reforming of dimethyl ether over composite catalysts of γ-Al2O3 and Cu-based spinel , 2005 .

[4]  K. Takeishi,et al.  Steam reforming of dimethyl ether , 2004 .

[5]  Yan Tian,et al.  Steam reforming of dimethyl ether over ZSM-5 coupled with Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst prepared by homogeneous precipitation , 2006 .

[6]  A. Sharma,et al.  Effect of carbonization temperature on the nickel crystallite size of a Ni/C catalyst for catalytic hydrothermal gasification of organic compounds , 2007 .

[7]  Brian P. Frank,et al.  Steam reforming of methanol over Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 modified with hydrotalcites , 2007 .

[8]  Y. Harada,et al.  Control of micropore formation in the carbonized ion exchange resin by utilizing pillar effect , 1999 .

[9]  O. Yamamoto,et al.  Adsorption and growth inhibition of bacteria on carbon materials containing zinc oxide , 2001 .

[10]  J. Sueiras,et al.  Catalytic reduction of nitrate on Pt-Cu and Pd-Cu on active carbon using continuous reactor: The effect of copper nanoparticles , 2006 .

[11]  R. Borup,et al.  Generating hydrogen-rich fuel-cell feeds from dimethyl ether (DME) using Cu/Zn supported on various solid-acid substrates , 2006 .

[12]  R. Kikuchi,et al.  A comparative study of solid acids in hydrolysis and steam reforming of dimethyl ether , 2007 .

[13]  Yohei Tanaka,et al.  Hydrogen production from dimethyl ether steam reforming over composite catalysts of copper ferrite spinel and alumina , 2007 .

[14]  D. Mehandjiev,et al.  Effect of rhenium on copper supported on activated carbon catalysts for methanol decomposition , 2005 .

[15]  Rufino M. Navarro,et al.  Production of hydrogen from methanol over Cu/ZnO catalysts promoted by ZrO2 and Al2O3 , 2003 .

[16]  A. Sharma,et al.  Uniform dispersion of Ni nano particles in a carbon based catalyst for increasing catalytic activity for CH4 and H2 production by hydrothermal gasification , 2006 .

[17]  R. Kikuchi,et al.  Cu-based spinel catalysts CuB2O4 (B = Fe, Mn, Cr, Ga, Al, Fe0.75Mn0.25) for steam reforming of dimethyl ether , 2008 .

[18]  A. Sharma,et al.  A novel nickel/carbon catalyst for CH4 and H2 production from organic compounds dissolved in wastewater by catalytic hydrothermal gasification , 2006 .

[19]  R. Kitaura,et al.  Low-temperature conversion of NO to N2 by use of a novel Ni loaded porous carbon , 2001 .

[20]  T. Fukunaga,et al.  The influence of metals and acidic oxide species on the steam reforming of dimethyl ether (DME) , 2008 .