STTR Phase II: Scale-Up of An Innovative Spray Pyrolysis Process for Producing Pyrochlore Catalysts

该业务创新研究二期项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是将Pyrochem Catalyst Company （PCC）的催化剂材料商业化。这些催化剂材料的独特之处在于具有催化活性的金属原子分散在刚性晶体基质中。这赋予了无与伦比的热稳定性，即使在超过1000°C的温度下。传统催化剂通常需要更高的贵金属负载（多达20倍）才能达到与本项目开发的材料相同的活性，并且在高温下，这些活性金属会聚集成大簇，降低其性能和催化剂的使用寿命。本项目开发的系列催化剂的设计使所有贵金属得到最佳利用和保护。这包括抗硫中毒和在恶劣条件下操作时碳的积累。这使得这些材料非常适合高温工艺，如用于制氢的蒸汽甲烷重整，用于合成气生产的自热重整，氧气传输膜（OTM）中的合成气生成，以及汽车催化转换器中的废气氧化。第二阶段STTR计划的目标是建立在第一阶段目标的成功基础上，即开发一种低成本和连续的催化剂制造方法，用于生产焦绿石粉末，这是拟议催化剂产品的基础。该方法可能同样有效地生产其他类型的混合金属氧化物，如钙钛矿和萤石。在第二阶段，PCC将根据第一阶段概念验证的设计要素，构建和测试一个规模化的生产平台。新装置将被设计用于生产专有的焦绿石粉末，其生产速度将比第一阶段装置的生产速度提高100倍。第二阶段的技术工作还检查了一系列催化剂合成参数，如氧化剂气体浓度/组成、生产单元的温度分布、前驱体停留时间、合成溶液化学，以及优化热量和质量传递。通过次级奖励，由该工艺生产的粉末将由位于西弗吉尼亚州摩根敦的国家能源技术实验室进行表征和活性测试。该项目的总体目标是开发一种高通量/高收率的制造工艺，生产用于商业销售的高性能催化剂。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Business Innovation Research Phase II project is to commercialize Pyrochem Catalyst Company's (PCC) catalyst materials. These catalyst materials are unique in that the catalytically active metal is atomically dispersed in a rigid crystalline matrix. This imparts unparalleled thermal stability, even at temperatures in excess of 1000°C. Conventional catalysts typically require much higher precious metal loadings (as much as 20 times) to achieve the same activity as the materials developed in this project and at high temperatures those active metals can agglomerate into large clusters reducing their performance and the lifetime of the catalyst. The series of catalysts developed in this project are designed in a way that all precious metal is optimally utilized and protected. This includes resistance from sulfur poisoning and the accumulation of carbon when operating under severe conditions. This makes these materials ideal for high temperature processes such as steam methane reforming for hydrogen generation, autothermal reforming for syngas production, syngas generation in oxygen transport membranes (OTM), and exhaust oxidation in automotive catalytic convertors. The objectives of this Phase II STTR program are to build on the success of the Phase I objectives that developed a low cost and continuous catalyst manufacturing method for producing the pyrochlore powders that are the basis for the proposed catalyst product. The method may be equally effective for producing other types of mixed metal oxides like perovskites and fluorites. In Phase II, PCC will construct and test a scaled-up production platform, following the design elements of the proof of concept demonstrated in Phase I. The new unit will be designed to manufacture proprietary pyrochlore powders at a rate with a hundred-fold increase over production rates of the Phase I unit. The Phase II technical efforts also examine a range of catalyst synthesis parameters like oxidant gas concentration/composition, temperature distribution in the production unit, precursor residence times, synthesis solution chemistry, and optimizing heat and mass transport. Through a subaward, powders produced from the process will be characterized and tested for activity by the National Energy Technology Labs, Morgantown, WV. The overall goal of this project is the development of a high throughput / high yield manufacturing process that produces high performance catalysts for commercial sale.