SBIR Phase I: Superior Spinel-perovskite Composite Catalysts for Combustion of Volatile Organic Compounds

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目研究了一系列新的低成本非贵金属催化剂，用于燃烧挥发性有机化合物（VOCs），如丙烷、己烷、甲苯、酮、醇、酚、二甲苯和甲醛，以减少工业废气中的VOC排放。催化燃烧是一种有效的方法，可以在挥发性有机化合物释放到大气之前在温和的温度下进行破坏。本项目提出具有尖晶石和钙钛矿结构的纳米过渡金属混合氧化物作为该应用的催化剂。由于尖晶石和钙钛矿之间的相互作用，复合催化剂有望在200-400℃下将VOCs完全氧化为CO2和H2O，并且比传统的贵金属基催化剂成本更低。本项目将采用多种方法合成纳米级粉末催化剂，进行VOCs燃烧测试，并通过物理和化学方法对催化剂进行表征。在二期项目中，这些有前景的催化剂将按比例放大，在整体中进行水洗涂层，并在真实的VOCs燃烧条件下进行评估。生成的信息可以为理解O2和小有机分子在过渡金属氧化物催化剂表面的活化过程及其相互作用提供新的见解。这些数据将用于了解VOC氧化行为，并在未来设计更有效的VOC燃烧催化剂。所产生的信息还可以应用于开发H2、CO、煤烟、天然气、轻烃等燃料燃烧的活性催化剂。该项目的广泛影响和商业潜力可以帮助减少挥发性有机化合物的排放，因为挥发性有机化合物在释放到空气中之前可以在催化剂表面完全氧化为CO2和H2O。由于挥发性有机化合物对人体健康有毒，并造成若干环境问题（例如光化学烟雾），环境立法对允许的大气排放水平规定了越来越严格的目标。与传统的含Pd和Pt催化剂相比，用非贵金属催化剂替代可以大大提高燃烧效率，降低燃烧系统的成本，这使得VOC催化燃烧技术在世界范围内得到更广泛的应用，以减少空气污染。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project investigates a new series of low-cost non-precious metal catalysts for combustion of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as propane, hexane, toluene, ketone, alcohols, phenols, xylene and formaldehyde, for reducing VOC emissions from industry exhausts. Catalytic combustion is an efficient approach for the VOCs destruction at mild temperatures before they are released into atmosphere. This project proposes nano-sized transition metal mixed oxides with spinel and perovskite structures as catalysts for this application. Due to the interactions between the spinels and perovskites, the composite catalysts are expected to exhibit excellent performance in complete oxidation of VOCs to CO2 and H2O at 200-400C, with less cost than traditional precious metal based catalysts. In this project, nano-size powder catalysts will be synthesized with various methods, tested for VOCs combustion, and characterized by physical and chemical methods. The promising catalysts will be scaled up, washcoated in monoliths, and evaluated under real VOCs combustion conditions in Phase II project. The generated information can provide new insights into understanding activation process of O2 and small organic molecules and their interactions on the transition metal oxide catalyst surface. The data will be utilized to understand VOC oxidation behavior and design more active VOC combustion catalysts in the future. The generated information can also be applied to develop active catalysts for combustion of H2, CO, soot, natural gas, light hydrocarbons and other fuels. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project can help abate the VOCs emissions because the VOCs can be completely oxidized to CO2 and H2O on the catalyst surface before they are released into air. Since VOCs are toxic to human health and contribute to a number of environmental problems (e.g., photochemical smog), environmental legislation has imposed increasingly stringent targets for permitted levels of atmospheric emissions. As compared to the conventional Pd and Pt containing catalysts, the substitution with non-precious metal catalysts could drastically improve the combustion efficiency and also reduce the cost of the combustion system, which allows VOC catalytic combustion technology to be more widely used in the world for reducing air pollution.