Efficient and sustainable H2 production from aqueous-phase reforming of methanol over Cu@CA-Val catalyst at low temperatures

Aqueous-phase reforming of methanol (APRM) is an important method for H 2 production, widely used in energy fields like polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). However, traditional noble metal catalysts , being expensive and vulnerable to CO poisoning, restrict their practical application. Therefore, developing robust non-noble metal catalysts for efficient and sustainable H 2 production with low CO levels in APRM at low temperatures is highly significant. In this study, a novel approach was employed to synthesize carbon-encapsulated Cu catalyst via controlled pyrolysis , leading to Cu@CA-Val catalyst with excellent low-temperature catalytic activity. The optimal Cu@CA-Val-300 catalyst exhibited a high hydrogen production rate of 0.2–27.0 μmolH 2 /g cat /s over a wide temperature of 135–180 °C (base-free), surpassing the most Cu-based and Pt-based catalysts. The Cu@CA-Val-300 catalyst exhibited exceptional hydrothermal stability during continuous operation in a fixed reactor for 200 h. Efficient H 2 production was attributed to good wettability , enabling the diffusion of CH 3 OH and H 2 O molecules into Cu + /Cu 0 sites for activation, with CO being suppressed and transformed through the formate formation.