Transient kinetics and in situ spectroscopic techniques for the characterisation of V/Ti-oxide catalysts in toluene partial oxidation

Development of selective oxidation catalysts is a major concern of modern chemical industry. Among several systems, VTi-oxide based catalysts showed the most promising and versatile, able to catalyse key reactions like oxidation of o-xylene to phtalic anhydride and the abatement of NOx for pollution control. Extensive investigation in the past decades concluded that supported vanadia is present as a layer of molecularly-defined surface compounds VxOy, ("monolayer species") on top of the carrier oxide which are the catalytically active sites. Despite all the efforts to correlate the activity of VTi-oxide with its structure, the catalytic role of the different active species in the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons and how to tune their properties are still open questions. The goal of the present thesis is the in situ characterisation of V/Ti-oxide by transient-response chemical (feed step-response, temperature-programmed analyses) and spectroscopic (infrared and Raman) techniques to answer these important questions by using toluene partial oxidation as test reaction. First, the identification and elucidation of the role of the vanadia species was carried out, using Raman spectroscopy and activity tests. The strongly-bound monolayer species which cannot be dissolved by acid treatment were found to have isolated vanadate structure and be catalytically active in toluene partial oxidation. They have redox properties close to more condensed vanadate ("polymeric") species, which are also active. Vanadium present as crystalline V2O5 is not directly active, but plays a role in the surface reduction mechanism. By in situ DRIFTS, it has been shown that V/Ti-oxide active sites work with a coupled mechanism of product desorption and site reoxidation. Re-oxidation can occur either by reaction with gas-phase O2 or by oxygen spillover from bulk V2O5. Acidity associated with V-O-V bridges in monolayer species is likely responsible for the reversible deactivation of the catalysts caused by strongly held surface coke. Second, the modification of the acid/base catalyst properties by K addition and the formation of surface V oxide species were studied. The presence of K modifies the molecular structure of the vanadia surface species and forms new K-containing ones. These species are difficult to reduce in hydrogen and they are not catalytically active. Their presence causes a diminished catalytic activity. At the same time, Lewis and Brønsted acidity is depressed. This eliminates the phenomenon of deactivation. The excessive basicity caused by potassium addition has a detrimental effect on selectivity in benzoic acid, which is strongly held on the surface because of their intrinsic acidity and undergoes overoxidation to CO2. Finally, the VTi-oxide was supported on structured supports based on woven fibreglass. The use of structured beds is interesting in chemical engineering due to their advantages in terms of increased mass and heat trasfer, reduced pressure drop and optimal flow distribution. In order to reach optimum performance, the rather inert silica surface must be modified by adding an alumina layer on top of the fibres. This modification is essential for an optimal support because of insufficient dispersion of the titania layer on silica due to phase repulsion between the two oxides. The structured catalysts possess comparable activity and identical selectivity to the studied non-structured VTi-oxide catalyst with the same content of vanadia layers.

Développement de réacteurs microstructurés pour la conversion du propane en produits valorisés

Olivier Wolfrath

Industry requires continuously new chemical processes to convert raw materials to valuable products limiting the formation of by-products. Since a few years, an increasing interest has been given to the intensification of chemical processes. This represents a new approach in chemical reaction engineering and calls for a new type of chemical reactors: the microstructured reactors. They are characterized by miniature structures whose components have a sub-millimeter size. The flow channels, for example, have a diameter from ten to several hundred microns. The distinctive feature of these structures is a very large surface/volume ratio, namely between 10'000 and 50'000 m2/m3. In these conditions, heat transfer coefficient is very high, up to 25 kW · m-2 · K-1. It is accepted that the residence time distribution in a reactor strongly influences the product selectivity and yield. In these thin channels, the RTD is particularly narrow due to a short radial diffusion time (ms), allowing a precise control of the residence time. Another advantage of these microstructures is an increase of the inherent safety due to a small amount of the compounds used. However, fabrication of microreactors, especially the introduction of active catalyst in microchannels remains a difficult operation. And integration of microsystems in conventional chemical processes is still a challenge. The aim of this work is first to develop a novel membrane reactor based on a new microstructured catalytic packing in the filamentous form and to apply it to the nonoxydative dehydrogenation of propane. A second objective is to develop a reactor with micro heat exchangers allowing an optimized control of homogeneous reactions. This reactor was tested with the partial oxidation of propene to propylene oxide. The microstructured catalyst above is made of thin and long catalytic filaments placed in parallel with a tubular reactor. This new kind of catalyst is based on silica fibres covered by a γ-alumina layer. The position in parallel of these filaments of 7 μm diameter forces the gases to flow in the fibres direction between the filaments. The hydraulic diameter is about 70 μm. Due to this laminar and regular flow, the pressure drop in the bed was divided by 5 compared to a conventional bed (100-160 μm spheres) and the residence time distribution was particularly narrower. Such novel packing brings new opportunities to the heterogeneous catalysis domain because it can be used for many other reactions improving highly the hydrodynamics and keeping an excellent contact with the reactants. The microstructured catalyst was installed in two concentric zones of a tubular reactor separated by a palladium-silver membrane permeable to hydrogen. This product was removed from the gas phase to shift the thermodynamic equilibrium, enhancing the propane conversion from 22% up to 30%. Another significant advantage in this reactor is the increase of propene selectivity up to 97% in comparison to conventional industrial processes reaching 80-90%. This difference is due to the diminution of hydrogenolysis and hydroisomerization reactions. The dehydrogenation is known to be endothermic. Oxidation of the hydrogen passing through the membrane produced heat for this reaction along the catalytic zone. Moreover, a periodic regeneration by air allowed recovering the activity of the catalyst deactivated by coke formed during dehydrogenation. Periodic reaction operations allowed producing continuously propene with a high selectivity, and regenerating simultaneously the catalyst. The second microstructured reactor was developed integrating two micro heat exchangers at the inlet and outlet of a macroscopic tube. The aim is to heat up very fast the gas and to cool it down as well. Without these exchangers, heating and cooling duration corresponded each to about 20% of the total residence time. The use of the microstructures allowed diminishing significantly these durations (4-5% each). Applied to partial oxidation of propene, this reactor reached a more precise control of reaction temperature and duration. The propylene oxide (PO) selectivity was not increased with this system but, due to the microstructures, it was possible to work at higher temperatures where the reaction becomes very fast, without reaching an oxygen conversion of 100%. Indeed, it is essential to avoid this situation where oligomers and coke form dividing by 2 the PO selectivity. So another new kind of reactor was developed suitable for any fast exothermic reaction whose progression has to be limited because of potential consecutive reactions reducing, for example, the selectivity of an intermediate desired compound.

EPFL2001

Study of N2O decomposition over Fe-ZSM-5 with transient methods

Petra Prechtl

Nitrous oxide is the third most important gas contributing to global warming and its concentration in the atmosphere is still on the rise. Nitric acid production represents the largest source of N2O in the chemical industry, with a total annual emission of about 400 kt N2O. An efficient way to reduce the N2O is the catalytic decomposition into N2 and O2. ZSM-5 zeolites containing iron are known to be effective in this reaction involving Fe(II)-extraframework species as active sites. But the nature of these sites and the reaction network is still under debate. Often the N2O is in the exhaust together with other gases like NOx, COx, oxygen, and water vapor, which may influence the catalyst efficiency towards N2O decomposition. The effect of these gases on the reaction mechanism is still not understood yet. The aim of this work is to study the decomposition mechanism of N2O over isomorphously substituted Fe-ZSM-5 (0.02-0.55% Fe) using transient response methods. Kinetic studies under steady-state conditions give overall information about the reaction, whereas transient experiments lead to information on the individual steps and the possibility to suggest a reaction model. Transient response methods are applied in vacuum using a Temporal Analysis of Products (TAP) setup and at ambient pressure using a Micromeritics AutoChem 2910 analyzer. The influence of different gases such as NO, H2O and NO2 on the decomposition of N2O over Fe-ZSM-5 is investigated to gain insight into their effect on this reaction. The TAP multifunctional reactor system is used to perform transient pulse experiments for micro-kinetic analysis of complex heterogeneous catalytic reactions. This setup allows to dose precisely reactants and to monitor product formation with submillisecond time resolution implying the absence of external mass or heat transfer. A reproducible low hydroxylation level of the catalyst can be attained in vacuum. The results from the transient responses with the Micromeritics analyzer are obtained under conditions more relevant to "operando". The mechanism of N2O decomposition over Fe containing ZSM-5 was studied by transient response methods at ambient pressure with the Micromeritics analyzer and under vacuum with the TAP setup. Both approaches showed that the mechanism strongly depends on the reaction temperature, but in all cases involves atomic oxygen loading from N2O with N2 evolution as the first reaction step. The surface oxygen, (O)Fe, formed from N2O possesses very high reactivity and oxidizes CO to CO2 already at 373 K. A complete saturation of the active sites can be reached by the catalyst exposure to N2O at low temperatures (T < 600 K in vacuum, T < 523 K at ambient pressure). Under these conditions oxygen is stored and does not desorb. On that basis, the concentration of sites active for the surface atomic oxygen loading from N2O is determined by pulse experiments using the TAP setup. The concentration of active sites is found to be the same as in a flow experiment with the Micromeritics analyzer. The mechanism of surface atomic oxygen recombination and desorption as O2 depends on the temperature. At temperatures higher than 773 K, the mechanism probably involves direct (O)Fe recombination. The investigation of the response profiles upon N2O pulses at 803 K evidences the O2 formation is the rate-determining step since the oxygen desorption is found to be slow compared to N2O and N2. Furthermore, a fit of the oxygen desorption curve corresponded to a first order dependence on the oxygen surface coverage. In the range of 523 to 773 K, the O2 formation is facilitated by NO, which is formed on the catalyst surface from N2O. The addition of NO to the gas phase confirmed the accelerating effect of NO on the oxygen desorption. NO and (O)Fe are adsorbed on adjacent, but different sites and are not competing for the same ones. Adsorbed NO accommodates oxygen from N2O forming higher oxidized nitrogen oxide species NO2/NO3 which decompose back to NOads and molecular oxygen. Thus, the recombination of surface oxygen loaded from N2O is accelerated by a NO/NOx redox cycle whereas adsorbed NOx acts as co-catalyst. Adsorbed NO is oxidized by N2O easily as shown also by temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) experiments. Therefore, the interaction of gaseous NO2 with Fe-ZSM-5 at 523 K in vacuum and at ambient pressure is investigated and demonstrates the formation of two different NOx surface species accompanied by the evolution of gaseous NO. These surface species block the sites for oxygen loading from N2O whereas the amount of reversible adsorbed N2O stays constant compared to the standard pre-treated catalyst. The formation of reactive surface oxygen from NO2 could neither be evidenced in TPD nor with CO oxidation experiments. Adsorbed water strongly influences the N2O decomposition inhibiting it completely, at least at temperatures ≤ 673 K. Water pulses at 523 and 593 K result in partial desorption of the loaded atomic surface oxygen as O2, indicating the competition of water for the same adsorption sites. The residual adsorbed oxygen desorbs during TPD experiments at 849 K instead of 715 K for the dry catalyst and it can not oxidize CO to CO2. It means that the active sites are transformed into an inactive form in the presence of water. The oxygen which stays on the catalyst seems to participate in the Fe(II) oxidation to the hydroxylated Fe(III) species. These Fe(III) species are inactive in N2O decomposition and could be activated again by high temperature treatment in He or in vacuum. During TAP experiments only small amounts of water are dosed and the water desorption is facilitated due to vacuum. Therefore, the effect of water could be shown to be reversible at temperatures > 700 K. At 803 K oxygen desorbs significantly faster with increasing water amount suggesting a water assisted O2 desorption. Simultaneously, the catalyst activity decreases to about a half of the initial activity of the dry zeolite. To conclude, from the TAP reactor data obtained under vacuum conditions and the results from the transient flow experiments at ambient pressure it follows that the mechanism of the N2O decomposition over Fe-containing ZSM-5 depends strongly on the reaction temperature and on the presence of NO, H2O and NO2. In general, below 523 K only surface atomic oxygen loading from N2O takes place with simultaneous evolution of N2 in the gas phase. The O2 formation proceeds via direct (O)Fe recombination at temperatures above 773 K. In the range of 523 to 773 K, the recombination of the atomic oxygen involves NOx adsorbed on the catalyst surface.

EPFL2007

Nitrous Oxide Abatement over Fe-Zeolite

Bryan Bromley

The use of zeolites for catalytic reactions is a field in continuous development. Since it was demonstrated that metal-zeolites are efficient catalysts for NOx abatement, decomposition of nitrous oxide (N2O) over Fe-containing zeolites has attracted great interest by the scientific community mainly due: N2O is the third most important gas contributing to global warming, its concentration in atmosphere is still on the rise and direct N2O decomposition to N2 and O2 is a sustainable alternative. N2O interaction with Fe-zeolite leads to the formation of "special" adsorbed oxygen (often called α-oxygen) with great potential for selective oxidation. Although the focus of a number of studies, the nature of the actives sites for the formation of this adsorbed oxygen is still unclear. The main objectives of this work are: 1) study the decomposition mechanism of N2O over isomorpously substituted Fe-ZSM-5 zeolite aiming on catalyst optimization and 2) optimization and further use of structured Fe-zeolite in novel micro-structured reactor. A number of refined transient kinetics methods were intensively used such as transient response, Temperature Programmed Desorption (TPD) and Temporal Analysis of Product (TAP). Density Functional Theory (DFT) and in situ IR spectroscopy studies were conducted in collaboration and our results support the following: In chapter 3, quantitative measurements have been carrier out to analyze the effect of temperature on the activation (under helium flow) and the irreversible deactivations that can happen during the pretreatment. The results obtained indicate that high temperature treatment (1273 K) results in the formation of a high amount of α-sites. The addition of a very low fraction of oxygen (2%) in the feed demonstrates that the catalyst is sensitive to its presence. Certain sites can be irreversibly destroyed, a result ascribed to the oxidation of active Fe(II) to Fe2O3 clusters which contain inactive Fe(III). Catalyst treatment at high temperature (1273 K) in He for up to 3 hours, also reduced irreversibly the concentration of α-sites. TPD measurements have shown desorption of oxygen at 3 different temperatures. Desorption at the lowest temperature (650 K) was assign to the α-oxygen recombination. The oxygen which desorbs at 700 K was associated to the oxygen from the deactivated sites. Oxygen which desorbs at the highest temperature (730 K) is originated from the surface NOx that desorbed as NO and O2. After a comparison of the concentration of the molecules accumulated, we propose that NO2 is the adsorbed specie. The mechanism of N2O decomposition on the binuclear oxo-hydroxo bridged extraframework iron core site [FeII(μ-O)(μ-OH)FeII]+ inside the ZSM-5 zeolite has been studied by combining theoretical and experimental approaches (see chapter 4). Rate parameters computed using standard statistical mechanics and transition state theory reveal that elementary catalytic steps involved into N2O decomposition are strongly dependent on the temperature. This theoretical result was contrasted with the experimentally observed steady state kinetics of the N2O decomposition and TPD experiments. As predicted by the theoretical study, the switch of the reaction order with respect to N2O pressure (from zero to one) occurs at around 800 K which confirms a change of the rate determining step from the α-oxygen recombination to α-oxygen formation. The proposed mechanism was also confirmed by O2-TD which confirmed the viability of the binuclear complex. The α-oxygen recombination at low temperature (

EPFL2010