Preparation of nanocrystalline Fe2O3–Cr2O3–CuO powder by a modified urea hydrolysis method: A highly active and stable catalyst for high temperature water gas shift reaction

• Nanocrystalline Fe–Cr–Cu catalysts were evaluated in HTS reaction.
• Mesoporous catalysts were prepared by modified urea hydrolysis method.
• The effects of process parameters on the catalytic activity were investigated.
• The prepared catalyst exhibited higher activity than commercial catalyst.
• The best catalyst showed high stability during 30 h in HTS reaction.

Nanocrystalline Fe2O3–Cr2O3–CuO powder was prepared by a modified urea hydrolysis method and employed as catalyst for high temperature water gas shift reaction. The prepared powders were characterized by XRD, BET, TPR, FTIR, and TEM techniques. The effect of preparation factors (aging time and temperature) was investigated on the physical and catalytic properties of the prepared samples. The results showed that aging temperature and time have a significant effect on the physical and catalytic properties of catalysts. The catalytic results revealed that the Fe2O3–Cr2O3–CuO catalyst prepared with urea hydrolysis method possessed higher surface area and catalytic activity compared to commercial catalyst. In addition, TEM analysis showed that the prepared catalyst possessed a nanocrystalline structure with crystallite size less than 15 nm. The results indicated that increase in calcination temperature decreased the BET area and consequently decreased the catalytic activity. The prepared catalyst exhibited stable catalytic performance in high temperature water gas shift reaction.

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