Issue 2, 2022 - 3D printing technology to prepare vehicle methanol reforming hydrogen production catalysts

Recently, the engineering science team of the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has made progress in the research of 3D printing technology to prepare vehicle methanol reforming hydrogen production catalysts, which is expected to promote the development of
methanol reforming hydrogen production technology in vehicle fuel cells and other fields.

On-board methanol reforming hydrogen production can supply hydrogen to fuel cell vehicles without using hydrogen as a direct feedstock, providing an effective way
to reduce their fuel storage costs and transportation costs.
The traditional catalyst has low mechanical strength, and the bed is easy to break during the high-speed movement of the vehicle, which affects the catalyst activity, so it is necessary to develop a catalyst preparation technology
with high mechanical strength while maintaining high catalytic activity.

To this end, the research team proposed a preparation method of 3D printing catalyst with high mechanical strength and high catalytic activity
by adjusting the carrier composition and calcination temperature, and improving the spatial structure of the catalyst.

The team synthesized the active composition of copper-zinc sheet layer on a porous carrier with high mechanical strength by dry crystal calcination
.
In addition, by improving the spatial structure of alumina carriers, the heat and mass transfer efficiency is improved and the bed pressure drop is reduced, thereby improving the catalytic effect of
methanol reforming reaction.

After the optimization of the reaction parameters, the spatiotemporal yield of mass catalyst hydrogen exceeds most of the same type catalysts currently reported, and the mechanical strength of the catalyst is 4 times that of the current traditional particle catalyst, which can adapt to the situation
of on-board acceleration bumps.