Boreskov Institute of Catalysis of the Siberian Branch of Russian ...

OP-IV-3CO REMOVAL FROM H 2 -rich GAS MIXTURES IN MICROCHANNELREACTORS WITH Cu/CeO 2-x CATALYSTSP.V. Snytnikov 1,2 , Y. Men 3 , V. Hessel 3,4 , V.A. Sobyanin 1,21 Boreskov Institute of Catalysis SB RAS, Pr. Lavrentieva, 5, Novosibirsk, 630090, RussiaE-mail: pvsnyt@catalysis.ru2 Novosibirsk State University, Pirogova St., 2, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia3 Institut fur Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH, Carl-Zeiss-Strasse 18-20, Mainz, 55129, Germany4 Eindhoven University of Technology, Den Doleh, 2, Eindhoven, 5600 MB, the NetherlandsPreferential CO oxidation (PROX) is one of the promising methods for CO removal fromhydrogen-rich gas mixtures produced by hydrocarbons conversion processes. Microchanneldesign of catalytic reactors due to enhanced heat and mass transfer has big advantages for thisprocess. However it requires development of new active components of catalysts able torealize these engineering breakthroughs by operation at short contact times without loss ofactivity and stability. Besides such engineering arguments, micro-channel reactors demand fornew kinds of catalyst formulation also from the system integration side, most prominentlybeing washcoated layers attached to the channels’ walls.Several series of the catalysts for preferential CO oxidation were synthesized. Copperceriumoxide was used as the main active component. The catalysts were synthesized byvarious procedures that allowed variation of the textural and morphological characteristics ofthe samples. The main efforts were focused on the finding of the optimum copper-ceriumoxide catalyst composition and development of the most feasible preparation procedure thatwould provide introduction of the active component into microchannels without activitylosses. It was obtained that the procedure for copper-ceria catalyst introduction intomicrochannels based on the deposition of water suspension of the catalyst with polyvinylalcohol as a binder was the most promising one. Experiments with the variation of catalystcomposition and preparation method of catalyst-binder suspension resulted in reproducibledata on the introduction of copper-cerium oxide washcoats into microchannels of stainlesssteel platelets. The obtained samples demonstrated good impact-resistance, survived contactswith water (that is critically important for microreactor operation in real conditions, as well asin the case of water condensing on fuel processor startup and stop).Simple sandwiched (two-plate) and laserwelded micro-channel reactors were used forcatalyst testing. The catalyst performance for selective CO oxidation in H 2 excess was studiedin a flow setup with on-line chromatographic analysis of the reaction products. Catalyticperformance of the microchannel reactors were checked using model feeds at WHSV =5000 ÷ 120000 cm 3 /g·h and temperature 100 ÷ 300 °С. For comparative experiments on theactivity of copper-cerium oxide catalyst towards the reactions in the microreactor and in144