Effect of Support Materials on Pd Methane Oxidation Catalyst Using Dynamic Estimation Method

Abstract

Abstract In the maritime industry, lean burn gas engines have been expected to reduce emissions such as NOx, SOx and CO2. On the other hand, the slipped methane, which is the unburned methane (CH4) emitted from lean burn gas engines have a concern for impact on global warming. It is therefore important to make a progress on the exhaust aftertreatment technologies for lean burn gas engines. As a countermeasure for the slipped methane, Palladium (Pd) catalyst for CH4 oxidation can be expected to provide one of the most feasible methods because Palladium (Pd) catalyst for CH4 oxidation can activate in the lower temperature. However, recent studies have shown that the reversible adsorption by water vapor (H2O) inhibits CH4 oxidation on the catalyst and deactivates its CH4 oxidation capacity. It can be known that the CH4 oxidation performance is influenced by active sites on the Pd catalyst. However, measuring methods for active sites on Pd catalyst under exhaust gas conditions could not be found. Authors thus proposed a dynamic estimation method for the quantity of effective active sites on Pd catalyst in exhaust gas temperature using water-gas shift reaction between the saturated chemisorbed CO and the pulse induced H2O. The previous study clarified the relationship between adsorbed CO volume and Pd loading in gas engine exhaust gas temperature and revealed the effects of flow conditions on the estimation of adsorbed CO volume. However, in order to improve CH4 oxidation performance on Pd catalyst under exhaust gas conditions, it is important that effects of support materials on active sites should clarify. This paper introduced experimental results of estimation of absorbed CO volume on different support materials of Pd catalysts by using the dynamic evaluation method. Experimental results show that chemisorbed CO volume on Pd/Al2O3 catalyst exhibits higher chemisorbed CO volume than that of Pd/SiO2 and Pd/Al2O3-SiO2 catalyst in 250–450 °C. These results can provide a part of the criteria for the application of Pd catalyst for reducing the slipped methane in exhaust gas of lean burn gas engines.