Impact of Reactant Condensation on a Cu/ZnO/Al ₂ O ₃ Catalyst Bed During Methanol-Steam Reforming for Fuel Cell Hydrogen Production

This paper describes a methanol-steam reforming test in which the reactant gas was caused to condense on the catalyst bed by limiting the heat input to the bed such that the endothermic heat of reaction decreased the temperature to below the dew point The catalyst bed never reached expected conversion rates throughout the test. Samples of the spent catalyst bed were characterized using NAA, TGA, XRD, BET surface area and copper surface area. The characterization revealed how the condensation of the reactants on the bed caused irreversible catalyst deactivation and loss in reformer performance.