An environmentally friendly turnkey method to determine pore volume of powdered catalysts

Abstract

Determination of intraparticle pore volume of powdered catalysts is of great interest in a large number of applications, such as fluidized catalytic cracking. Established methods, including mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and gas adsorption method can only measure the volume of pores within a limited range of pore diameter. In this paper, a turnkey method to determine the total intraparticle pore volume of powdered catalyst by water adsorption is proposed. The detailed experimental procedure, accuracy, factors influencing the quality of measurement results as well as the scientific basis of this method are discussed. The observed sudden increase of powder cohesion at the titration end point is characterized by storage modulus. The results of the water adsorption method are significantly correlated with the results of the widely accepted methods such as MIP. The relevant ASTM standard (D8393–21) has been granted. Quick, convenient, accurate measurement and environmentally friendly properties are the key industrial incentives of this method.