Meeting Program — January 2018
Jing Lu
Staff Scientist at Clean Air Division
Johnson Matthey Inc.
Abstract — Catalytic oxidation of methane in the presence of excess of oxygen is of great interest as a practical technology to reduce methane emissions from compressed natural gas vehicles, engines, and turbines. Typical commercial methane oxidation catalysts are alumina-supported palladium catalysts. When operated at low temperatures, these catalysts exhibit rapid deactivations on stream due to water inhibition. In addition, these Pd-catalysts are sensitive to sulfur poisoning, even with the presence of a trace amount (≤ 1 ppm) of SO2 in the feed. Among other oxide materials, zeolites were also investigated as a potential support for palladium – such as the effects of frameworks and exchange or impregnation methods – but no significant benefits were discovered in the past comparing to conventional alumina-based catalysts. Here, we demonstrate the application of siliceous zeolites (i.e. SiO2-to-Al2O3 ratio (SAR) >1200) as Pd-support, the resulting catalysts exhibit significantly improved activity and on-stream durability at low temperatures, and are able to be regenerated from sulfur poisoning under realistic operating conditions.
Biography — Jing Lu received his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from University of California, Santa Barbara. He joined Johnson Matthey in 2013 after earning a Ph.D. from University of California, Davis where he worked with Prof. Bruce Gates. Jing is currently a Staff Scientist leading the developments of selective catalytic reduction, ammonia slip control and methane oxidation catalysts for diesel and natural gas aftertreatment. He is an inventor of several patents and author of 19 journal articles.