STTR Phase I: An Innovative Spray Pyrolysis Process for Producing Pyrochlore Catalysts

该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种连续和低成本的喷雾热解工艺，用于制造混合金属氧化物（MMO）材料，这些材料可用于石油和化学品合成，太阳能电池板的前体，电极材料，燃料电池，氧选择膜和化学传感器。特别令人感兴趣的是用于催化化学反应的结晶焦绿盐混合金属氧化物，因为它们提供了催化金属的原子分散和通过控制元素组成来影响活性和选择性的能力。作为催化剂，晶体mmo具有无与伦比的热稳定性，抗毒性和超过传统支撑金属的寿命。问题是mmo需要一个耗时和昂贵的批量过程来生产晶体材料，这限制了它们的使用主要是小众应用。相比之下，喷雾热解过程使用类似的溶液化学，但产生非常小的液滴尺寸和高温来快速形成结晶材料。虽然该工艺已经应用于纯氧化物，但这是第一次应用于mmo。开发一种持续且低成本的过程能够最终释放mmo的新应用和现有应用的潜力。这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目的重点是确定连续喷雾热解过程的工艺参数，这些参数可以控制MMO的粒度、结晶度、表面形态、表面积和某些化学反应的催化活性。感兴趣的工艺参数包括温度、多个反应区、液滴大小、流动模式、液滴停留时间和金属溶液浓度。在本项目中，喷雾热解工艺的目标是生产结晶焦绿石材料，用作碳氢化合物部分氧化和重整的催化剂。这些材料（以批处理方式合成）在合成气和氢气生产中重要的蒸汽重整、二氧化碳重整和部分氧化反应中表现出优异的性能，因此有一个很好的性能比较基线。该项目由Pyrochem Catalyst Company （New Brighton， PA）牵头，汇集了来自国家能源和技术实验室（催化剂的原始发明者）、西弗吉尼亚大学和路易斯维尔大学的专业知识。集体，团队？S的目标是对喷雾热解过程的物理和化学特性有一个清晰的认识，以便它可以扩展到示范和最终的商业能力。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the development of a continuous and low-cost spray-pyrolysis process for making mixed metal oxide (MMO) materials that can be used in the petroleum and chemicals synthesis, precursors for solar panels, electrode materials, fuel cells, oxygen selective membranes, and chemical sensors. Of particular interest are crystalline pyrochlore mixed metal oxides for catalyzing chemical reactions because they offer atomic dispersion of the catalytic metals and the ability to influence activity and selectivity through the control of the elemental composition. As catalysts, crystalline MMOs offer unparalleled thermal stability, resistance to poisons and lifetimes that exceed conventional supported metals. The problem has been that MMOs require a time-consuming and costly batch process for producing crystalline materials and this has limited their use to mainly niche applications. In contrast, the spray pyrolysis process uses similar solution chemistry but creates very small droplet size and high temperatures to rapidly form the crystalline materials. While the process has been applied to pure oxides, this represents the first application to MMOs. The development of a continuous and low cost process can finally unlock the potential of MMOs for new and existing applications. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 project focuses specifically on identifying the process parameters of a continuous spray pyrolysis process that control MMO particle size, crystallinity, surface morphology, surface area and catalytic activity for certain chemical reactions. The process parameters of interest include temperature, multiple reaction zones, droplet size, flow patterns, droplet residence time and metal solution concentrations. For this project, the spray pyrolysis process will target the production of crystalline pyrochlore materials used as catalysts in the partial oxidation and reforming of hydrocarbons. These materials (synthesized in batch mode) have demonstrated superior performance for steam reforming, CO2 reforming and partial oxidation reactions important in syngas and hydrogen production, so there is an excellent baseline for comparison of performance. The project, led by Pyrochem Catalyst Company (New Brighton, PA) brings together expertise from the National Energy and Technology Labs (the original inventors of the catalyst), the University of West Virginia and the University of Louisville. Collectively, the team?s objective is to create a clear understanding of the physical and chemical attributes of the spray pyrolysis process so that it can be scaled to demonstration and ultimately commercial capacities.