Herein, we report monometallic Ni and bimetallic Pd–Ni catalysts supported on CeO₂–Al₂O₃ binary oxide which are highly active and selective in oxy-steam reforming of methanol (OSRM). Monometallic and bimetallic supported catalysts were prepared by an impregnation method. The physicochemical properties of the catalytic systems were investigated using a range of methods such as: Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), X-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD), Temperature-programmed reduction (TPR–H₂), Temperature-programmed desorption (TPD–NH₃), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Scanning Electron Microscope equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM–EDS). We demonstrate that the addition of palladium facilitates the reduction of nickel catalysts. The activity tests performed for all catalysts confirmed the promotion effect of palladium on the catalytic activity of nickel catalyst and their selectivity towards hydrogen production. Both nickel and bimetallic palladium–nickel supported catalysts showed excellent stability during the reaction. The reported catalytic systems are valuable to make advances in the field of fuel cell technology.

In this work, bimetallic Cu-Ni catalysts supported on binary oxides containing ZnO, ZrO₂, CeO₂ and Al₂O₃ were investigated in hydrogen production via the oxidative steam reforming of methanol (OSRM). Their physicochemical properties were extensively studied using various methods such as BET, TPR-H₂, TPD-NH₃, XRD, SEM-EDS, ToF-SIMS and XPS. The reactivity measurements showed that the active phase and support composition played an important role in the activity of the catalyst in the OSRM. The most active system at higher temperatures was 30% Cu–10% Ni/CeO₂·Al₂O₃, with high catalytic activity attributed to the Cu_0.8Ni_0.2 alloy formation. In addition, the reactivity results showed that the most active catalyst exhibited high acidity and was easily reduced. At low temperatures, the best catalytic properties were exhibited by 30% Cu–10% Ni/ZrO₂·Al₂O₃. The reactivity and physicochemical properties of the studied catalysts confirmed the crucial role of alloy composition on their catalytic properties in the oxy-steam reforming of methanol. The obtained results validate the possibility of using Cu-Ni catalysts for hydrogen production.