Preparation and catalytic properties of honeycomb catalyst for hydrogen isotope oxidation

•Honeycomb catalysts with good physical properties were prepared for detritiation.•The catalysts increase gas flow rate significantly without decreasing the conversion rate.•The catalysts were used at room temperature with high H2 conversion rate.•The confines of H2 concentration and flow rate for catalyst application were tested.

The method of catalytic oxidation and adsorption is widely used for atmosphere detritiation. But traditional particle catalyst has large gas resistance, which limited the space velocity for detritiation. Honeycomb catalyst can enormously increase the gas handling capacity due to its low pressure drop and high dispersity of active ingredients, but has not been used in detritiation so far. A coating of alumina was deposited on the honeycomb substrate of cordierite using ultrasonic technology. By the method of excessive impregnating, noble metal (Pt or Pd) supported catalysts were prepared. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2-adsorption/desorption (Brunauer–Emmet–Teller – BET method), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and laser particles sizer. The result shows that the alumina coatings are well distributed, well knitted and the specific surface area of honeycomb catalyst rises to about 20 m2/g. Catalytic activities were evaluated by H2 conversion rate in gas mixture (with different H2 concentration and various flow rates). The results indicated that all catalysts exhibited excellent catalytic performance for H2 oxidation; the conversions of hydrogen were 100% at room temperature when the gas space velocity was up to 6 × 105 h−1.

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