A highly active and stable chromium free iron based catalyst for H2 purification in high temperature water gas shift reaction

• Nanocrystalline Fe–Al–Ni Cr-free catalysts were evaluated in HTS reaction.
• Preparation parameters affected the structural properties of the Fe–Al–Ni catalyst.
• Fe–Al–Ni catalyst (Fe/Al = 10, Fe/Ni = 5) showed the highest activity.
• Fe–Al–Ni catalyst presented higher activity compared to commercial Fe–Cr catalyst.
• Effect of calcination temperature was studied on Fe–Al–Ni catalyst.

In this work mesoporous nanocrystalline chromium free Fe–Al–Ni catalysts with various Fe/Al and Fe/Ni ratios were prepared by coprecipitation method for high temperature water gas shift reaction. The prepared catalysts were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption (BET), temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. The catalytic results revealed that the catalyst with Fe/Al = 10 and Fe/Ni = 5 weight ratios exhibited the highest catalytic activity among the prepared catalysts and the commercial chromium containing one. This catalyst possessed a high surface area of 177.4 m2 g−1 with an average pore size of 4.3 nm with a high stability during 20 h time on stream. Furthermore, the effect of calcination temperature, GHSV and steam/gas ratio on the structural properties and catalytic performance of the catalyst with the highest activity was investigated.

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