Abstract
Oxidative Steam Reforming of Methanol (OSRM) needs lower heat supply and higher hydrogen production per methanol molecule, which is ideal for portable and vehicle fuel cell application. However, POM reaction, which composes OSRM, caused formation of hot spot at the entrance of the reactor’s channel. The hot spot accelerated degradation of performance of the catalysts. A Swiss-Roll channel was designed for the reactor used in this study. The simulation of POM preforming showed that gradient loading of catalysts could eliminate formation of hot spot. Washcoated copper foam and packed-bed catalysts were placed in the channel to achieve gradient loading of catalysts. The experiment results showed that the initial hydrogen production rate (HPR) of the POM reformer was 2.5×10-3 (mol/min). HPR of packed-bed reformer decreased to 50% after 10 hr. HPR of catalysts gradient loading reformer decreased to 50% after 50 hr, proving that gradient loading of catalysts could enhance life performance of a POM reformer. The initial HPR of the OSRM reformer was 6.5×10-3 (mol/min), which was sufficient to supply a 10 W PEM fuel cell. The life performance was stable only if the operating temperature above 280°C. The HPR of POM catalysts made by GO process after 40 h was 193% higher than standard POM catalysts, the causes of the performance was still under research.