The Catalytic Performance of Ni/CeO2 Catalysts for WGS Reaction in a Microchannel Reactor

Multidisciplinary integrative approach that combine practical experimentation and mathematical modelling, material science and chemical engineering was adopted in order to study water–gas shift reaction (WGS) performance over nickel–ceria catalysts. Experimental studies on kinetic effect of metal fractions were performed in different lab-scale reactor configurations, such as fixed-bed and microchannel reactors. The quasi-steady state kinetics for the water–gas shift reaction between 250 and 550°C was evaluated using a very dilute gas (1% CO + 1.8% H2O in ??). Experimental results were interpreted using computational models, and kinetic parameters were determined by regression analysis, while mechanistic aspects were considered only briefly. A set of experiments with realistic feed gas having a composition similar to product gas from methane partial oxidation (CO:H2O:H2:N2 = 1:2:2:2) were conducted for WGS reaction in the microchannel reactor. These data were used for the model verification by simulation.

This research should be of interest to readers in focal areas of catalysis such as green processes and sustainable engineering, especially related to catalyst synthesis, characterization and its applications.