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

这个小企业创新研究第二阶段项目将在NexTech Materials研究一系列新的低成本非贵金属催化剂，用于挥发性有机化合物（VOC）的燃烧。催化燃烧是一种在温和温度下有效降解挥发性有机物的方法。NexTech提出纳米尺寸的过渡金属混合氧化物作为该应用的催化剂。来自阶段I努力的结果表明催化剂可以氧化VOC（例如，丙烷、丁烷、己烷、丁烯、甲苯和丙醇）在200-250 ℃和45000 - 150000 ml/g·hr的气时空速下转化为CO 2和H 2 O。在相同的反应条件下，VOC在复合氧化物上完全转化的温度比在常规贵金属催化剂上低100-150 ℃。氧化物催化剂也比贵金属催化剂更耐受硅和磷，这是VOC流中的两种常见杂质。在第二阶段项目中，将对有前景的催化剂进行放大、整体涂覆，并在真实的VOC燃烧条件下进行评价。用贵金属催化剂替代复合氧化物催化剂，预计可节省80%的催化剂成本和30%的操作成本。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是减少工业过程和天然气燃料发动机的VOC排放。由于VOC对人类健康有毒并导致许多环境问题（例如，光化学烟雾），环境立法对大气排放的允许水平施加了越来越严格的目标。这种催化燃烧技术可以通过将VOC在催化剂表面氧化成CO2和H2O，然后释放到空气中来去除VOC。与传统的Pd和Pt催化剂相比，NexTech？的复合氧化物催化剂可以大幅度提高燃烧效率，降低成本，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。所产生的信息可以为理解O2和有机小分子的活化过程及其在过渡金属氧化物表面的相互作用提供新的见解。这些数据将用于了解VOC的氧化行为，并在未来设计更多的活性VOC燃烧催化剂。所产生的信息也可以应用于开发用于天然气、轻质烃、烟灰、H2、CO和其他燃料的燃烧的活性催化剂。

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.