Study on the supported Cu-based catalysts for the low-temperature water–gas shift reaction

This paper presents a study on the influence of support (Al2O3, MgO, SiO2-Al2O3, SiO2-MgO, β-zeolite, and CeO2) of Cu-ZnO catalysts for the low-temperature water–gas shift reaction. Supported Cu-ZnO catalysts were prepared by the conventional impregnation method, followed by the H2 reduction. The activity of Cu-ZnO catalysts for the water–gas shift (WGS) reaction was largely influenced by the kind of support; Cu-ZnO catalysts supported on Al2O3, MgO, and CeO2 showed high activity, while those on SiO2-Al2O3, SiO2-MgO and β-zeolite showed less activity in the temperature range 423–523 K. XRD analysis demonstrated that the copper species were highly dispersed on the supports used in the present study, except for a MgO support. TPR results of a series of supported CuO-ZnO catalysts suggest that the reducibility of CuO is one of the important factors controlling the activity of the WGS reaction over the supported catalysts.