Characteristics of Hybrid Catalysts from Copper-Based Metal Oxide and .GAMMA.-Al2O3 for Steam Reforming of Dimethyl Ether

DME hydrolysis to methanol is accelerated by the presence of acidic sites, and the methanol conversion to hydrogen proceeds relatively fast over copper-based catalysts. Since the equilibrium of DME hydrolysis seems to be shifted to the right due to methanol SR over copper-based catalysts, the catalytic activity of DME SR seems to mainly depend on the design of copper-based catalysts. In this work, different metal oxides were introduced into the copper-based catalyst, and their effects on the physical properties such as copper surface area, acidity and reducibility were investigated. The catalytic performances were analyzed mainly in terms of copper reducibility.