Preparation of Cu-Zn-Ce-Al Spinel Catalyst for Hydrogen Production in Micro-Channel Reactor and Considering the Geometrical Effects of Micro-Channels on Velocity Distribution

In this paper, preparation of new Cu-Zn-Al spinel catalysts with CeO2 using sol-gel and homogeneous precipitation methods are reported. For evaluation of the prepared catalysts for steam reforming of methanol, an A-type micro-channel reactor was designed and fabricated and the prepared catalysts were coated on the reactor channels by hybrid method between sol-gel and suspension methods. The catalysts were evaluated at 270 ºC to 310 ºC. For the catalysts evaluation a mixture of methanol and water with 1.5, 2.5 and 3.5 molar ratios were used as the feed of the reactor. Flow rate of the feed was 2 cc/h. Obtained results show that the prepared spinel catalysts were promising catalysts for hydrogen production by methanol steam reforming. Also, by computational fluid dynamic the geometrical effects of micro-channels on velocity distribution for two different A-type and Z-type micro-channels were considered.