Challenges in applied oxidation catalysis

Abstract

Haldor Topsøe A/S works on several aspects related to oxidation catalysis. In three examples, the challenges related to the development of catalysts and processes in oxidation catalysis are discussed. While certain challenges like the lowest possible pressure drop over the catalyst and price considerations are common for almost all areas of oxidation catalysis, other challenges may be specific for a particular area. In the first example, it is shown that the catalytic combustion technologies for off-gas purification have to tolerate a large variety of trace species involving traditional catalyst poisons including halogens and sulphur. The second example deals with oxidation catalysis for automotive applications. The main challenges within this area are often related to catalyst efficiency at the cold-start of a motor and catalyst lifetime, which depends upon the lifetime of the vehicle. Finally, the third example presents challenges within catalytic partial oxidation (CPO) of natural gas for hydrogen and synthesis gas production. Here, a high catalyst activity and selectivity are of utter importance due to ultra-short residence times of the feed gas in the channels of a monolithic CPO reactor. The examples show that industrial catalyst and process developments are often tailor-made solutions for a specific application.