Activated carbons as templates for creating precursors of catalysts for large-scale industrial processes

Aim of project
The aim of this project is to use the method of templating with active carbon as the template to obtain precursors of oxide catalysts for two important industrial processes, namely the water-gas shift reaction and ammonia synthesis. In the case of the former process, the main component of thus formed catalysts will be iron oxide, whose active, under the reaction conditions, phase is magnetite. Additionally, the catalysts will be promoted with chromium oxide, copper oxide or ruthenium. The precursor of the catalysts for ammonia synthesis will be cobalt oxide, whose active, under the reaction conditions, phase is cobalt. The oxide will be doped with cerium, lanthanum, barium or other elements.

We will study the influence of the structure of the used active carbon, as well as that of the promoters, on the structural properties, such as specific surface areas, of the oxides and on the activity of the catalysts acquired from the precursors. Moreover, the obtained catalysts will be characterized by methods like XRD.

Expected results
The catalysts obtained by using the templating method are expected to have large specific surface areas. The large specific surface areas of the oxide precursors should cause the active phases, i.e. magnetite in the water-gas shift reaction and metallic cobalt in ammonia synthesis, of the catalysts to have a favorable structure and thus result in higher reaction rates, with regard to mass or volume of the catalysts. In Poland, there are many factories which synthesize ammonia, hence new and effective catalysts developed for either preparing synthesis gas or the synthesis of ammonia itself, could be applied in the technical process. The results will, therefore, comprise fundamental and application studies.