Copper-Based Water Gas Shift Catalysts for Hydrogen Rich Syngas Production from Biomass Steam Gasification

Abstract

Copper-based catalysts deposited on foams were developed to perform the water gas shift reaction at low temperature (150–300 °C) at the outlet of a biomass gasifier with limited pressure drop. Different synthesis methods were used such as wet impregnation and urea-nitrates combustion methods for the preparation of copper/ceria/foam catalysts containing 4.5–7.0 wt % of copper as the active phase and 7.0–9.0 wt % of ceria as the wash coat. The latter were characterized in order to evaluate present phases, their crystallite size, and ceria lattice parameter by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, specific surface area by N2 adsorption technique (BET method), and reducibility by temperature programed reduction (TPR). The activity of the catalysts was studied in the water gas shift reaction at low temperature (150–300 °C) and at a high gas hourly space velocity (between 3600 and 9500 h–1) as a function of preparation parameters (synthesis method and catalyst composition) and operating parameters (temperature and ...