SBIR Phase II: Superior Spinel-perovskite Composite Catalysts for Combustion of Volatile Organic Compounds

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will investigate a new series of low-cost non- precious metal catalysts for combustion of volatile organic compounds (VOC) at NexTech Materials. Catalytic combustion is an efficient approach for the VOC destruction at mild temperatures. NexTech proposes nano-sized transition metal mixed oxides as catalysts for this application. The results from Phase I efforts indicate that the catalysts can oxidize VOC (e.g., propane, butane, hexane, butene, toluene and propanol) to CO2 and H2O at 200-250 deg C and gas hourly space velocities of 45,000-150,000 ml/g-hr. The temperature for complete conversion of VOC on the composite oxides is 100-150 deg C lower than that on the conventional precious metal catalysts under the same reaction conditions. The oxide catalysts are also more tolerant to silicon and phosphorous, two common impurities in VOC stream, than the precious metal catalysts. The promising catalysts will be scaled up, washcoated in monoliths, and evaluated under real VOC combustion conditions in Phase II project. The replacement of precious metal catalyst to the composite oxide is expected to save 80% catalyst cost and 30% operation cost. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to abate VOC emissions from industrial processes and natural-gas-fueled engines. Since VOC are toxic to human health and contribute to a number of environmental problems (e.g., photochemical smog), environmental legislation has imposed increasingly stringent targets for permitted levels of atmospheric emissions. This catalytic combustion technology can remove VOC by oxidizing them to CO2 and H2O on the catalyst surface before they are released into air. As compared to conventional Pd and Pt catalysts, the substitution of NexTech?s composite oxide catalysts could drastically improve the combustion efficiency and reduce the cost, which allows VOC catalytic combustion technology more widely used in the world for reducing air pollution. The generated information can provide new insights into understanding activation process of O2 and small organic molecules and their interactions on the transition metal oxide surface. The data will be utilized to understand VOC oxidation behavior and design more active VOC combustion catalysts in the future. The generated information can also be applied to develop active catalysts for combustion of natural gas, light hydrocarbons, soot, H2, CO and other fuels.