Sorption enhanced steam reforming of methanol for high-purity hydrogen production via Fe-doped Cu-MgO catalytic-sorption bifunctional material

Abstract

One of the key routes toward green hydrogen storage and utilization is hydrogen production through green methanol reforming. In this study, Fe-doped Cu-MgO catalytic-CO₂ sorption bifunctional material was synthesized using the sol-gel method. The physicochemical properties of these materials were characterized using XRD, XPS, and CO₂-TPD. Then the hydrogen production performance of sorption enhanced steam reforming of methanol (SE-SRM) was evaluated in a fixed-bed reaction system. The results revealed that the material's primary components were Cu, MgO, and Fe₂O₃. The addition of Fe component was beneficial for promoting Cu dispersion. The variation of the Fe doping amount influenced the interaction between Cu and MgO, altering the distribution of Cu ions, surface oxygen states, and CO₂ sorption active site occupancy. Moderate Fe doping significantly improved methanol conversion and H₂ selectivity. After 15 min of reaction time, Fe-doped materials exhibited significantly higher methanol conversion than standard Cu-MgO material. The influences of reforming temperature, water-to-methanol molar ratio, and aqueous methanol flow rate on the performance of Fe-doped Cu-MgO materials were also investigated. At reaction conditions of 200 °C, water-to-methanol ratio 1.50 and methanol flow rate of 0.10 mL/min, methanol conversion reached 77.5 % and hydrogen selectivity 83.1 %, which were superior to previous methanol reforming performance with Cu-based catalysts. Results from present study suggest that the bifunctional materials had strong potential for green methanol reforming application in hydrogen production.