Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
155951 Chemical Engineering Science 2011 9 Pages PDF
Abstract

A honeycomb monolith with a Pt/γ-Al2O3 catalyst has been tested in order to highlight and explain the bifurcation behavior of catalytic methane (partial) oxidation under process conditions, elucidating the light off behavior. With CH4/O2=1 (rich mixture) and different heating/cooling policies it has been shown that hysteresis occurs only after complete ignition of the catalyst. The dependence of hysteresis on the feed composition was studied, showing that it disappears with lean mixtures, has its maximum for slightly richer than stoichiometric mixtures and then decreases with much richer composition. At the same time, the ignition temperature lowers with increasing CH4/O2 ratio. Finally, we suggest a procedure to decrease the ignition temperature by taking advantage of the hysteretic behavior, gradually tuning the feed composition, with the only limit given by the thermal insulation capabilities.

Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Chemical Engineering Chemical Engineering (General)
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