Selective CO removal over Au/CeFe and CeCu catalysts in microreactors studied through kinetic analysis and CFD simulations

Abstract

A kinetic study of the preferential oxidation of CO in H2 rich streams (CO-PrOx) over a cerium-copper oxide (CeCu) and a gold catalyst supported on cerium-iron oxide (Au/CeFe) is presented. The gold catalyst is very active but the CeCu oxide is more selective. A kinetic model describing the CO-PrOx system with CO2 and H2O in the feed has been formulated considering the oxidation of CO and H2 and the reverse water-gas shift reaction. The rate equations have been implemented in computational fluid dynamics codes to study the influence of the operating variables on the CO-PrOx in microchannels and microslits. The CeCu catalyst is the only one capable of achieving final CO contents below 10-100ppmv. Due to the opposite effect of temperature on activity and selectivity there is an optimal temperature at which the CO content is minimal over CeCu. This temperature varies between 170 and 200°C as the GHSV increases from 10,000 to 50,000h-1. Simulations have evidenced the very good heat transfer performance of the microdevices showing that the CO-PrOx temperature can be controlled using air as cooling fluid although the inlet temperature and flow rate should be carefully controlled to avoid reaction extinction. Both microchannels and microslits behaved similarly. The fact that the microslits are much easier to fabricate may be an interesting advantage in favour of that geometry in this case.