Discovery of new catalytic materials for the water–gas shift reaction by high-throughput experimentation

New Cu-free non-pyrophoric catalytic materials have been discovered for the water–gas shift reaction (WGSR) by high-throughput experimentation applying an evolutionary search strategy. Two approaches were applied for the design of experiments: (1) the amount of Cu in the composition was not restricted; as expected from common knowledge Cu containing catalysts were superior within the given parameter space. (2) By allowing only a maximum Cu content of 1 wt.% in the second approach new Cu-free materials were discovered. The new compositions contained mainly oxides of Cr or Fe along with Mn and Pt on ZrO2 as support material. A maximal activity for WGSR was achieved at 250 °C (CO conversion of 55%); the feed composition amounted to 3% CO, 37% H2, 14% CO2, 23% H2O, Ar balance and the GSHV to 3000 h−1.