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Abstract

Hydrogen can be used in fuel cells to provide energy. For mobile applications methanol may be employed as hydrogen source instead of pure hydrogen. Hence, hydrogen is obtained by steam reforming of methanol (MSR) resulting in the formation of hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Cu containing catalysts have been shown to be sufficiently active and selective for MSR. By using Cu on ZrO2 as support, H. Purnama [1] obtained an improved activity and selectivity compared to a commercial Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst. A. Szizybalski [2] showed that the activity of these catalysts correlated with a residual amount of oxygen in the reduced Cu phase. Modifying the cation lattice of the ZrO2 support by incorporation of metals may vary the properties of these catalysts. Moreover, in this contribution we report on modification of the anion lattice of ZrO2 by incorporation of nitrogen. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the influence of nitrogen incorporation and, in addition, of different calcinations atmospheres on the structure of the Cu containing phase. The nitrogen incorporation prevents a stronger oxidation of the deposited Cu during the oxygen treatment. Furthermore a new Zr containing phase is observed which may influence the performance of the catalyst. The CO2 containing calcination atmosphere prevents a change of the support which also avoids the methanol steam reforming directly after the reduction. References: [1] H. Purnama, T. Ressler, R.E. Jentoft, H. Soerijanto, R. Schlögl, and R. Schomäcker, Appl. Catal., A, 259, 83 (2004) [2] A. Szizybalski, F. Girgsdies, A. Rabis, Y. Wang, M. Niederberger, and T. Ressler, J. Catal. 233, 297 (2005)