Pt–Co catalyst-coated channel plate reactor for preferential CO oxidation

To achieve preferential CO oxidation, a Pt–Co catalyst-coated channel plate reactor (CCPR) was produced via conventional mechanical milling and catalyst coating. The proposed reactor performed well under a wide range of operating temperatures and provided satisfactory results at low temperatures (CO concentrations of 1–10 ppm at 413–443 K and 1–50 ppm at 413–453 K). In the proposed CCPR, significant deactivation was not observed during continuous operation for 100 h. In addition, the reactor exhibited excellent tolerance to undesirable conditions, including reaction temperature runaway and feeding stream failure. Characterisation results indicated that the catalytic activity of the proposed CCPR was high due to the formation of Pt3Co intermetallic compounds and nanoscale metal particles. The capacity per channel of the proposed CCPR was approximately 50–100 times greater than those of conventional microchannel reactors; thus, problems associated with excessive reactors were significantly reduced. In general, the results indicated that CCPR has great potential in the small-scale production of hydrogen for fuel cells.

Research highlights
► Under a wide range of operating temperatures, a Pt–Co catalyst-coated channel plate reactor can reduce the concentration of CO from 1% to less than 10 ppm.
► The proposed reactor exhibited excellent tolerance to undesirable conditions, including reaction temperature runaway and feeding stream control failures.
► The high catalytic activity was due to the formation of Pt3Co intermetallic compounds and nanoscale metal particles.