The need for realistic testing in the development of monolithic catalysts for hydrogen generation

2007 Spring Symposium

 
Wolf­gang Ruet­tinger
BASF Cat­a­lysts LLC
101 Wood Avenue
Iselin, NJ 08830 USA
wolfgang.​ruettinger@​BASF.​com


Abstract — In the devel­op­ment of mono­lith­ic cat­a­lysts for hydro­gen pro­duc­tion, one has to devel­op cat­a­lysts with suf­fi­cient activ­i­ty and selec­tiv­i­ty to be com­mer­cial­ly viable. In addi­tion, the cat­a­lyst has to endure the oper­at­ing con­di­tions encoun­tered in fuel proces­sors and have a suf­fi­cient use­ful life­time.

Real­is­tic test pro­to­cols and accel­er­at­ed aging tests play an impor­tant role in deter­min­ing the dura­bil­i­ty of cat­a­lysts. In auto­mo­tive three-way cat­a­lyst, there is a vast data­base of mil­lions of used cat­a­lysts and the preva­lent fail­ure modes were exten­sive­ly stud­ied. This is not the case in fuel proces­sors for hydro­gen pro­duc­tion. With very lim­it­ed field data, we have to design tests which mim­ic the most dam­ag­ing con­di­tions encoun­tered using lab­o­ra­to­ry reac­tors and deter­mine pos­si­ble fail­ure modes.

I will show exam­ples of test pro­to­cols devel­oped at BASF Cat­a­lysts (for­mer­ly Engel­hard). Test­ing of water gas shift cat­a­lysts demon­strate how start-stop oper­a­tions with var­i­ous start-stop cycles can be among the most dam­ag­ing oper­a­tions to the cat­a­lysts. Results of the tests form the basis for trou­bleshoot­ing of cat­a­lysts prob­lems in the appli­ca­tion. Fun­da­men­tal knowl­edge gained dur­ing exam­i­na­tion of cat­a­lysts oper­at­ed in these tests can influ­ence future cat­a­lyst design.