Hydrogen Production for SOFCs Application via Autothermal Reforming of Volatile Organic Compounds on Ru-pyrochlore Catalysts

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from industrial coating operations could be valuable energy resources if collected and used effectively. A promising approach is to generate syngas stream for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) application by autothermal reforming of them. However, conventional nickel-based catalysts with whatever promoters/supports or formulations are not very successful for this process for lacking of activities or deactivating quickly due to sintering or carbon deposition at the presence of high percentage of aromatic compounds or sulfur chemicals. By contrast, there also exist many big challenges for precious metal-based catalysts in terms of longevity and cost effectiveness. In this paper, Ruthenium noble metal dispersed in a formulation of pyrochlore structure was explored, and various VOCs with wide range of monoaromatics additives of various species and fairly amount of naphthalene was used as fuels to simulate actual VOCs. It was found that this catalyst not only had quite good initial activity but also showed very good stability during the longevity tests, which was considered as important as, if not more important than, the former for commercialization. Eventually, actual VOC collected from a painting-booth was tested for this autothermal reforming process. The longevity test verified the high activities and good stabilities of this catalyst. Most likely the precious metal atomically dispersed in a stable structure of pyrochlore contributed to the super performance, although fundamental studies to understand the reaction mechanism was much needed.