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

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种连续和低成本的喷雾热解工艺，用于制造可用于石油和化学品合成的混合金属氧化物（MMO）材料，太阳能电池板的前体，电极材料，燃料电池，氧选择性膜和化学传感器。特别感兴趣的是用于催化化学反应的结晶烧绿石混合金属氧化物，因为它们提供催化金属的原子分散和通过控制元素组成影响活性和选择性的能力。作为催化剂，结晶MMO具有无与伦比的热稳定性、抗毒性和超过传统负载金属的寿命。问题是MMO需要耗时且昂贵的批量工艺来生产结晶材料，这将其使用限制在主要的利基应用中。相比之下，喷雾热解工艺使用类似的溶液化学，但产生非常小的液滴尺寸和高温以快速形成结晶材料。虽然该工艺已应用于纯氧化物，但这是首次应用于MMO。开发一个连续的、低成本的过程最终可以释放MMO在新的和现有的应用中的潜力。该小型企业创新研究第1阶段项目特别关注确定连续喷雾热解过程的工艺参数，这些参数控制MMO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、液滴尺寸、流动模式、液滴停留时间和金属溶液浓度。在本项目中，喷雾热解工艺将以生产用作碳氢化合物部分氧化和重整催化剂的晶体烧绿石材料为目标。这些材料（以间歇模式合成）已经证明对于合成气和氢气生产中重要的蒸汽重整、CO2重整和部分氧化反应具有上级性能，因此存在用于性能比较的优异基线。该项目由Pyrochem催化剂公司（新布莱顿，PA）领导，汇集了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。整体而言，团队？的目的是创建一个明确的理解的物理和化学属性的喷雾热解过程，使其可以扩大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.