A comparative kinetics study between Cu/SSZ-13 and Fe/SSZ-13 SCR catalysts

• Cu/SSZ-13 gains oxidation activity after aging while the opposite is found for Fe/SSZ-13.
• Mixed Cu/SSZ-13 and Fe/SSZ-13 provide more stable performance in SCR.
• Hysteresis in standard and fast SCR can be rationalized from NH3 and NH4NO3 inhibition, respectively.

Cu- and Fe/SSZ-13 catalysts with the same Cu(Fe)/Al ratios are synthesized using the same parent SSZ-13 starting material. The catalytic performance for both fresh and hydrothermally aged catalysts is tested with NO and NH3 oxidation, and standard SCR reactions under steady-state conditions, and standard and fast SCR under temperature-programmed conditions. For standard SCR, Cu/SSZ-13 shows much better low-temperature performance which can be explained by NH3-inhibition of Fe/SSZ-13. During hydrothermal aging, both catalysts undergo dealumination but Fe/SSZ-13 dealuminates more severely. For aged catalysts, Cu/SSZ-13 gains oxidation activities due to formation of CuOx. However, Fe/SSZ-13 loses oxidation activities although formation of FeOx clusters and FeAlOx species also occur. Because of such physical properties differences, aged Cu/SSZ-13 loses while Fe/SSZ-13 maintains high-temperature SCR selectivities. A physical mixture of aged catalysts provides stable SCR performance in a wide temperature range and is able to decrease N2O formation at high reaction temperatures. This suggests that Fe/SSZ-13 can be used as a cocatalyst for Cu/SSZ-13 for transportation applications. During temperature-programmed SCR reactions, weak hysteresis is found during standard SCR due to NH3 inhibition. For fast SCR, hysteresis caused by NH4NO3 inhibition is much more significant. NH4NO3 deposition is greatly enhanced by Brønsted and Lewis acidity of the catalysts.

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