Abstract:

Methanol reforming microreactor for hydrogen production is one of the effective tools to realize online hydrogen supply for fuel cells. A porous copper fiber sintered sheet (PCFSS) with gradient porosity was fabricated using the cutting copper fiber by a low temperature solid-phase sintering technology. A two-layer
impregnation method was employed to load the Cu/Zn/Al/Zr catalysts on PCFSS. A surface morphology of PCFSS with different gradient porosities was discussed based on the scanning electronic microscope (SEM) observation. Some PCFSSs with different porosity structure were used as catalyst support in the microreactor for hydrogen production. Reaction performances were investigated by varying the reaction gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) and the temperature. The results show that the microreactor exhibits a better methanol conversion (95%) with the gradient PCFSS with a porosity of 90%~70% from the inlet to the outlet having a hydrogen molar flow rate of 0.51 mol/h and a better catalytic reaction stability compared with the PCFSS with an uniform porosity of 80%.

Key words: microreactor for hydrogen production, methanol steam reforming, porous copper fiber sintered sheet, catalyst support, gradient porosity