Study of Cu-Zn and Au/TiO2 Catalysts on Anodized Aluminum Monoliths for Hydrogen Generation and Purification

M. E. ADROVER; D. BOLDRINI; N. DIVINS; A. CASANOVAS; G. TONETTO; E. LÓPEZ; J. LLORCA

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL REACTOR ENGINEERING

BERKELEY ELECTRONIC PRESS

Año: 2016

1542-6580

This work reports the preparation of Cu-Zn andAu/TiO2 catalysts on anodized aluminum monoliths(AAM). The structured catalysts were studied for the generationof H2 by methanol steam reforming (MSR) and itspurification by preferential oxidation of CO (CO-PrOx).Initially, it was possible to generate a surface with whiskersand larger surface area by hydrothermal treatment ofthe AAM. Subsequently, the structured catalysts weresynthesized by incipient wetness impregnation (IWI)and hydrothermal synthesis (HS). IWI synthesis allowedfor the deposition of a larger amount of catalytic materialthan HS, with very good adhesion. The TiO2-IWI structuredcatalyst presented a homogeneous catalytic coating,with the presence of agglomerated particles. On theother hand, Cu-Zn-IWI showed good dispersion of thedeposited particles with a homogeneous surface coating.EDX analysis corroborated the presence of Ti, Cu and Znin all the catalytic surfaces. The incorporation of Au overTiO2-IWI structured catalysts was successfully performedby IWI using a colloidal solution of gold nanoparticles.MSR was studied over the developed metallic monolithsfunctionalized with Cu-Zn by the IWI method. The samplesshowed promising results in terms of activity, selectivity,and stability. Both diluted and concentratedmethanol + water feeds were assayed. Complete methanolconversion was achieved for the diluted feed.Maximum methanol conversions of 55% with 60% H2yield were measured when the concentrated feed wasselected. Promising results were also achieved for theAu-based structured catalysts in the CO-PrOx in an H2-rich atmosphere. Although CO conversions of approximately60% were achieved, operating with higher catalystloadings would be recommended to reach the highCO conversions required for PrOx catalysts.