Various promoted methanol‐steam reforming catalysts were prepared by incorporating Mn, Cr and Zn promoters into two dried corprecipitated Cu‐Al catalyst precursors containing 24.1 and 27.8 mass% Cu, calcined at 700°C, and then subjected to various activation treatments. Both the calcined and activated catalysts were thoroughly characterized using reaction studies, ICP—AES, XRD and TPR techniques.
Results showed that in addition to Cu2O, CuO, Al2O3 and CuAl2O4 species present in all calcined catalysts, calcined Zn‐promoted catalysts contained ZnO and ZnAl2O4 species, whereas calcined Mn‐ and Cr‐promoted catalysts contained CuMnO2 and Mn2O3, and Cu2Cr2O4 and Cr2O3 species, respectively. The nature and amounts of active sites generated on activated catalysts for the methanol‐steam reforming reaction strongly depended not only on the promoter type and concentration but also on the activation method.