Methanol as a High Purity Hydrogen Source for Fuel Cells: A Brief Review of Catalysts and Rate Expressions

Abstract

Hydrogen is the fuel of the future, therefore many hydrogen production methods are developed. At present, fuel cells are of great interest due to their energy efficiency and environmental benefits. A brief review of effective formation methods of hydrogen was conducted. It seems that hydrogen from steam reforming of methanol process is the best fuel source to be applied in fuel cells. In this process Cu-based complex catalysts proved to be the best. In presented work kinetic equations from available literature and catalysts are reported. However, hydrogen produced even in the presence of the most selective catalysts in this process is not pure enough for fuel cells and should be purified from CO. Currently, catalysts for hydrogen production are not sufficiently active in oxidation of carbon monoxide. A simple and effective method to lower CO level and obtain clean H2 is the preferential oxidation of monoxide carbon (CO-PROX). Over new CO-PROX catalysts the level of carbon monoxide can be lowered to a sufficient level of 10 ppm.

Performance Enhancement of CuO/ZnO by Deposition on the Metal-Organic Framework of Cu-BTC for Methanol Steam Reforming Reaction

“…The agglomeration of the particles caused the deactivation of the catalysts. On the other hand, based on Xu et al [5] and Li et al, [40] zinc oxide can inhibit the sintering of copper during the reaction. Considering the agglomeration and the inhibitation ?…”

“…[2][3][4] Among various thermochemical energy storage technologies, the methanol steam reforming (MSR) reaction is a striking method for its ability to generate massive hydrogen, which also surmounts the transit difficulty and storage problem of hydrogen. [5][6][7] What 's more, the reacting temperature of MSR typically ranges from 180 to 400 °C, which is much lower than the reacting temperature of methane dry reforming, methane steam reforming and ethanol steam reforming. [6,[8][9][10] The whole MSR reaction can be described by the following chemical reactions:…”

“…However, CuO/ZnO shows good catalytic activity only at temperature of around 250 °C, and deactivation typically happens at temperatures larger than 250 °C. [5] To improve the catalytic activity, anti-deactivation ability and stability performance of CuO/ZnO at higher temperatures, CuO/ZnO catalysts were modified in different ways. Mateos-Pedrero et al [20] changed the surface area and polarity ratio of ZnO in CuO/ZnO catalyst and found that higher polarity ratio contributed to better catalytic performance, but no deactivation analysis of the catalysts was carried out in their study.…”

Investigation on binary copper-based catalysts used in the ethanol steam reforming process

“…Nowadays there is no doubt that hydrogen is the most important carrier of clean energy [1]. Until today, it was produced in industry from gasification of coal and other fossil materials, in steam reforming of hydrocarbons (mainly methane) and oxygenates (mainly methanol) [2,3] and from electrolysis of water [4]. In last two decades ethanol steam reforming is of great interest because ethanol is safe and easy in storage and distribution.…”

Advances in Methanol Production and Utilization, with Particular Emphasis toward Hydrogen Generation via Membrane Reactor Technology

“…In the last three decades, the potential of methanol utilization as a hydrogen carrier was also demonstrated [13]. Furthermore, an extensive range of literature was addressed at hydrogen production through steam reforming reaction [14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. Compared to steam methane reforming (SMR) reaction (usually carried out between 800 °C and 1000 °C), methanol steam reforming (MSR) attracted particular interest because it takes place at significantly lower temperatures, around 240–260 °C.…”