Hydrogen production in microreactor using porous SiC ceramic with a pore-in-pore hierarchical structure as catalyst support

Porous SiC ceramic as catalyst support with porous CuO/ZnO/CeO2/ZrO2 catalyst was fabricated via solution combustion method and used in a microreactor. A pore-in-pore hierarchical structure was formed on the support by using glycol as the fuel. The effects of fuel/nitrates molar ratio on the particle size, residual carbon, reducibility and structure of catalyst on the support were investigated. The optimal content of glycol was proposed and the catalytic performance of microreactor was further studied. Results showed that the catalyst loading amount was about 20% weight of the whole support and the loading intensity was strong. Moreover, the microreactor achieved a 100% methanol conversion rate at 280 °C and the conversion rate stayed around 95% after 30 h reaction by using the support over the optimal content of glycol, which exhibited excellent superiority in the methanol steam reforming process.