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

这个小型企业创新研究第二阶段项目将在NexTech材料公司研究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(VOC)。催化燃烧是一种在温和的温度下破坏VOC的有效方法。NeXTech提出了纳米级过渡金属混合氧化物作为这一应用的催化剂。第一阶段工作的结果表明，催化剂可以将VOC(例如丙烷、丁烷、正己烷、丁烯、甲苯和丙醇)在200-250℃和每小时气体空速45,000-150,000毫升/克-小时内氧化成二氧化碳和水。在相同反应条件下，VOC在复合氧化物上的完全转化温度比在常规贵金属催化剂上低100~150℃。与贵金属催化剂相比，氧化物催化剂对挥发性有机化合物中的两种常见杂质硅和磷的耐受性更强。在二期工程中，有希望的催化剂将进行放大、整体涂层，并在真实的VOC燃烧条件下进行评估。将贵金属催化剂替换为复合氧化物，预计可节约催化剂成本80%，运行成本30%。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是减少工业过程和天然气发动机的VOC排放。由于挥发性有机化合物对人体健康有害，并造成许多环境问题(如光化学烟雾)，环境立法对大气排放的许可水平设定了越来越严格的目标。这种催化燃烧技术可以将VOC在释放到空气中之前在催化剂表面氧化成CO2和H2O来脱除VOC。与传统的钯、铂催化剂相比，替代纽科泰克？S复合氧化物催化剂可以显著提高燃烧效率，降低成本，使挥发性有机化合物催化燃烧技术在世界范围内得到更广泛的应用，以减少大气污染。所产生的信息可以为理解O2和有机小分子的活化过程以及它们在过渡金属氧化物表面的相互作用提供新的见解。这些数据将被用来了解VOC的氧化行为，并在未来设计更具活性的VOC燃烧催化剂。所得信息还可用于开发用于天然气、轻烃、烟尘、氢气、一氧化碳等燃料燃烧的活性催化剂。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will investigate a new series of low-cost non- precious metal catalysts for combustion of volatile organic compounds (VOC) at NexTech Materials. Catalytic combustion is an efficient approach for the VOC destruction at mild temperatures. NexTech proposes nano-sized transition metal mixed oxides as catalysts for this application. The results from Phase I efforts indicate that the catalysts can oxidize VOC (e.g., propane, butane, hexane, butene, toluene and propanol) to CO2 and H2O at 200-250 deg C and gas hourly space velocities of 45,000-150,000 ml/g-hr. The temperature for complete conversion of VOC on the composite oxides is 100-150 deg C lower than that on the conventional precious metal catalysts under the same reaction conditions. The oxide catalysts are also more tolerant to silicon and phosphorous, two common impurities in VOC stream, than the precious metal catalysts. The promising catalysts will be scaled up, washcoated in monoliths, and evaluated under real VOC combustion conditions in Phase II project. The replacement of precious metal catalyst to the composite oxide is expected to save 80% catalyst cost and 30% operation cost. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to abate VOC emissions from industrial processes and natural-gas-fueled engines. Since VOC 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. This catalytic combustion technology can remove VOC by oxidizing them to CO2 and H2O on the catalyst surface before they are released into air. As compared to conventional Pd and Pt catalysts, the substitution of NexTech?s composite oxide catalysts could drastically improve the combustion efficiency and reduce the cost, which allows VOC catalytic combustion technology more widely used in the world for reducing air pollution. 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 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 natural gas, light hydrocarbons, soot, H2, CO and other fuels.