Experimental Study on Onboard Hydrogen Production Performance from Methanol Reforming Based on Novel Spinel

The green transformation of the shipping industry urgently requires zero-carbon power, and hydrogen-powered ships such as hydrogen fuel cell ships face bottlenecks in in situ hydrogen production and storage and transportation. Methanol steam reforming (MSR) online hydrogen production is suitable for ship scenarios, reducing costs and increasing efficiency while helping achieve zero carbon throughout the entire lifecycle, which has important practical significance. The key technology for MSR technology is the performance of the catalyst. A series of Cu1−xMnxAl2O4 catalysts were successfully synthesized and applied for hydrogen production in this study. The catalyst structure was characterized using physicochemical techniques including XRD, SEM, and EDS. Hydrogen production performance was evaluated in a fixed-bed reactor under the following conditions: a liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) of 20 h−1, a water-to-methanol molar ratio of 3:1, and a reaction temperature range of 275 °C–350 °C. The results demonstrate that A-site Mn substitution significantly enhanced the catalytic performance. In addition, XRD analysis revealed that Mn incorporation effectively suppressed the formation of segregated CuO phases. However, excessive substitution (x is 0.9) led to the generation of an MnAl2O4 impurity phase. Finally, the Cu0.7Mn0.3Al2O4 catalyst achieved a methanol conversion of 68.336% at 325 °C, with a hydrogen production rate of 5.611 mmol/min/gcat, and maintained CO selectivity below 1%. The results demonstrate that the hydrogen production catalyst developed in this study is a promising material for meeting the requirements of online hydrogen sources for ships.