Could an efficient WGS catalyst be useful in the CO-PrOx reaction?

•Development of efficient catalysts for both WGS and PrOx reactions.•Extensive study of the PrOx reaction parameters to achieve the best activity/selectivity ratio.•CO/H2 pulses study for understanding of H2/CO oxidation competition.•Suitability of the samples in the PrOx reaction especially under high CO inlet concentrations.

This work presents an evaluation of a high performance series of water gas shift (WGS) catalysts in the preferential CO oxidation reaction (PrOx) in order to examine the applicability of the same catalyst for both processes as a first step for coupling both reactions in a single process. Gold based catalysts are applied in an extensive study of the CO-PrOx reaction parameters, such as λ, WHSV, CO concentration and [H2O]/[CO2] ratio in order to obtain the best activity/selectivity balance. CO and H2 oxidation reactions were treated separately in order to establish the degree of CO/H2 oxidation competition. Additionally the catalysts behavior in the CO-PrOx parallel reactions such a WGS and RWGS have been also carried out to analyze their effect on product composition.

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