The global interest in water-gas shift (WGS) reaction increased significantly in recent years because of the need to produce high purity H2 in conjunction with fuel cell power generation and coal gasification process. However, pure metallic catalysts are easily deactivate by sulfur component which is ubiquitous in syngas. It has been predicted that Cu and Pd are promising sulfur tolerant catalysts for the water-gas-shift reaction based on theoretical (DFT) calculations. Several model bimetallic catalysts were synthesized in our laboratory and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), physi/chemisorption, and temperature programmed reduction (TPR) in H2. The TPR analysis showed that the presence of Cu facilitated the reduction of active metals at lower temperatures. The TGA analysis revealed a strong interaction between Cu, Pd and support suggesting solid alloy information. The XRD indicated that the size of these metallic nanoparticles was in the 15-20 nm range depending on the Cu/Pd content. The size and shape of supported Cu-Pd nanoparticles were determined by TEM. The WGS catalytic activity of catalysts have been evaluated in the water gas shift reaction at 398-723 K under atmospheric pressure in a fixed-bed micro reactor employing the feed of 10% CO and 20% H2O (balance He). Significant improvement in the WGS catalytic activity was observed by optimizing the Cu/Pd ratio of Cu/Pd. The WGS activity of the optimized bimetallic catalysts was further investigated in 50 ppm H2S and compared to that of single-metal catalysts.

Novel bimetallic Cu-Pd catalysts for lowtemperature WGS reaction

248th National Meeting (2014)

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