Anti-coking Cu-Ni bimetallic catalyst for hydrogen production: Thermodynamic and experimental study of methanol autothermal reforming

Autothermal reforming has emerged as a promising route for hydrogen production from bio-methanol, offering a balance between hydrogen production and the energy demand of the process. To address the low catalytic performance of non-precious metal catalysts, one of the approaches is to introduce a second metal. In this work, a series of Cu-Ni bimetallic catalysts derived from Ca-Al hydrotalcite-like compounds were prepared by the urea hydrolysis method combined with hydrothermal treatment, featuring well-dispersion with a size of 3-5 nm. The electron redistribution triggered by the incorporation of Cu enhances the absorption of methanol at the electron-poor surface, leading to maintained catalytic activity at 450 °C for 96 hours with few carbon-deposition observed for methanol autothermal reforming. The boundary conditions of the thermal-neutrality system are analyzed by thermodynamic calculations and similar trends to the simulation results were also obtained from experiments.