Low temperature oxidation of carbon monoxide for heat recuperation: A green approach for energy production and a catalytic review

Abstract

Low-temperature catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide has been broadly studied in literature in the view of air purification, recovery of hydrogen and reduction of industrial stack emissions. However, neither of the previously studied articles has reported the oxidation of carbon monoxide for capturing the heat generated in the exothermic reaction and simultaneously utilizing the carbon dioxide for producing chemical/petrochemical products. Thus, the current article unprecedentedly occupies an important place in literature that discusses various aspects of low-temperature oxidation of carbon monoxide for heat recuperation. The present work has identified carbon monoxide as a potential heat generator and thereby also unparallely proposed a novel zero carbon emission or NERS process to use carbon monoxide as a fuel in various industries for energy generation. In order to select the best suitable catalyst for mitigating the activation energy barrier associated with oxidation of carbon monoxide, a meticulous selection process is described with chronological and categorical literature review, and thereby concentrating the scattered literature and simultaneously alleviating the complexities involved in the catalyst selection procedure. A techno-economic analysis of the proposed NERS process is also provided with additional discussion on the benefits of carbon credits in order to confer the potential to scale up the process. Thus, the article describes a novel and a cleaner approach for the production of energy in order to take an important step towards sustainable development.