This report covers the second year of a project investigating water-gas shift catalysts for use in membrane reactors. It has been established that a simple iron high temperature shift catalyst becomes ineffective in a membrane reactor because the reaction rate is severely inhibited by build-up of the product CO2. During the past year, an improved microkinetic model for water-gas shift over iron oxide was developed. Its principal advantage over prior models is that it displays the correct asymptotic behavior at all temperatures and pressures as the composition approaches equilibrium. This model has been used to explore whether it might be possible to improve the performance of iron high temperature shift catalysts under conditions of high CO2 partial pressure. The model predicts that weakening the surface oxygen bond strength by less than 5% should lead to higher catalytic activity as well as resistance to rate inhibition at higher CO2 partial pressures. Two promoted iron high temperature shift catalysts were studied. Ceria and copper were each studied as promoters since there were indications in the literature that they might weaken the surface oxygen bond strength. Ceria was found to be ineffective as a promoter, but preliminary results with copper promoted FeCr high temperature shift catalyst show it to be much more resistant to rate inhibition by high levels of CO2. Finally, the performance of sulfided CoMo/Al2O3 catalysts under conditions of high CO2 partial pressure was simulated using an available microkinetic model for water-gas shift over this catalyst. The model suggests that this catalyst might be quite effective in a medium temperature water-gas shift membrane reactor, provided that the membrane was resistant to the H2S that is required in the feed.
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