Advantages of stainless steel sieves as support for catalytic N2O decomposition over K-doped Co3O4

•K/Co3O4 was prepared in supported and unsupported form.•Stainless steel wire mesh and TiO2 tablets were used as supports.•Effective utilization of active components was obtained only on K/Co3O4 deposited on wire mesh.•Mathematical model confirmed advantage of stainless steel wire mesh supported catalyst.

Supported Co3O4 catalysts were prepared by heating of the cobalt hydroxide synthesized electrochemically on stainless steel sieves and by heating of the commercial TiO2 pellets impregnated with cobalt nitrate solution; the catalysts were modified with potassium promoter. For comparison, the grained K-doped Co3O4 catalyst was prepared from the precipitated precursor. The catalysts were characterized by AAS, XRD, N2 physisorption, TPR-H2, STEM and SEM and tested in N2O catalytic decomposition in laboratory conditions. Mathematic model based on ideal plug flow and laboratory kinetic data was used to compare catalytic performance of unit bed volume of both K-Co3O4 supported catalysts. Simulation results showed that higher conversions in potential large scale application can be achieved over the catalyst deposited on stainless steel sieves in comparison with TiO2 pellets. K/Co3O4 stainless steel wire mesh catalyst combines suitable features of active cobalt species with the effective utilization of all present active components.

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