Low cost catalysts for Water Gas Shift reaction based on CuNi over La promoted ceria

POGGIO-FRACCARI, EDUARDO; ROZENBLIT, ABIGAIL; MARIÑO, FERNANDO

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF INORGANIC CHEMISTRY

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Año: 2018

1434-1948

PEM fuel cells are of great interest for vehicular applications. A highly pure, sustainably obtained H2 stream is desirable to use as the cell feed. The Water Gas Shift reaction (WGS) is one of the stages in which large amounts of CO, a poison for the cell anode, are removed from a bio‐alcohol derived H2 stream, before entering the cell. In this study, Cu‐Ni catalysts supported on a combination of La‐doped ceria solids are analyzed and proposed for the WGS reaction. The solids were prepared via the urea thermal decomposition method, with different percentages of La as a promoter of the ceria support. The metal phase is incorporated via incipient wet impregnation. Many characterization techniques have been employed in this work (BET, XRD, SEM, ICP, TPR, OSC), and a relation between the properties obtained from these studies and the solid´s catalytic performance is attempted in order to determine the effect of La presence. A mixture of both Cu and Ni was found to be the most effective active phase out of all the studied samples, having considerable activity and selectivity towards the desired reaction. Low contents of La doping on ceria enhance oxygen mobility in the lattice. From the results presented in this work it can be concluded that a commercial ceria salt containing La as its main impurity (ca. 2%) is quite convenient, given its good performance and its low market value compared to a high purity salt.