Self-sustained CO Combustion Induced by CuCe0.75Zr0.25Oy Catalysts with Different Pore-forming Methods

Abstract

ABSTRACT CO self-sustaining combustion, induced by a CuCe0.75Zr0.25Oy catalyst, has been confirmed experimentally as an effective strategy to reduce serious environmental pollution and energy waste, which is caused by direct combustion of conventional converter gas in the steelmaking industry. In this paper, the effects of CuCe0.75Zr0.25Oy catalysts prepared by a sol-gel method via three different pore-forming agents (oxalic acid, cellulose and thermal decomposition) were investigated for their catalytic activity of self-sustained CO combustion. Additionally, characterization methods were used to obtain the structural properties of each catalyst. The results obtained show that the CuCe0.75Zr0.25Oy catalyst, as a sol-gel pore-forming agent, prepared from cellulose exhibits the highest activity among the three catalysts. Under the condition of a reaction gas (3% CO+5% O2/N2), the T10 (70°C), T50 (73°C) and T90 (78°C) of the cellulose catalyst are obviously lower than those of the other catalysts, where T10, T50 and T90 denote the reaction temperature corresponding to the CO conversion of 10%, 50% and 90%, respectively. The reason is that the cellulose pore-forming agent promotes the formation of a multistage porous structure, which strengthens the synergistic effect between the Cu and Ce catalysts and changes the redox property of the overall catalyst. On the one hand, the strong synergy between CuO and CeO2 adjusts the dispersion and chemical state of copper nanoparticles. On the other hand, the oxygen vacancies generated locate at the copper-cerium interface enhance the ability of oxygen storage and oxygen release of the catalyst.