Ni₃Al intermetallics catalyst for hydrogen production from methanol

The catalytic activity and stability of single-phase Ni₃Al powder for hydrogen production from methanol were studied at 633-793 K by isochronal and isothermal tests. The alkali-leached Ni₃Al powder exhibited much higher catalytic activity and selectivity for the methanol decomposition than Raney Ni catalyst above 633 K. The hydrogen production rate increased with increasing temperature, and reached a peak near 713 K. During the isothermal test, the selectivities for the production of H₂ and CO increased with reaction time and then stabilized at high level which was above 94% at 673 K, 93% at 713 K, 79% at 793 K, respectively. On the other hand, the selectivity for the production of CH₄ decreased with reaction time during the initial period and then stabilized at low level, i.e. the formation of methane was suppressed significantly with the progress of reaction. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AIChE Annual Meeting (San Francisco, CA 11/12-17/2006).