An environment-benign catalyst for methanol steam reforming to hydrogen was successfully developed by 308 group, Institute of Coal Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The scale-up of the catalyst was finished in April 2013, and the obtained catalysts were successfully applied in the industrial device with a hydrogen production of 100m3/h. Up to now, the catalyst, which has been running for two months, showed good activity and stablility, and the purity of hydrogen product reached the requirement of the enterprise. 

The catalyst has three major features. First, the catalyst is prepared by the solid phase method and there is no effluent and exhaust gas, so the process is green and environment-friendly. Second, the catalyst can be produced 10 percent more cheaply than that of the Cu/Zn/Al industrial catalyst. Third, the pretreatment of the catalyst can use the reaction feed instead of H2, thus simplified the pretreatment process. 

The methanol steam reforming to hydrogen process enjoys  relative competition advantages in small or medium sectors  using H2 and has been developed rapidly in recent years. The maximum hydrogen production of this technology has reached 10,000m3/h. In view of its environment-friendliness and low cost, it is hopeful that the catalyst developed by ICC would be a new generation technology for the methanol steam reforming to hydrogen.