The Influence of Phosphorus Exposure on a Natural-Gas-Oxidation Catalyst

Phosphorus is found to have a deactivating effect on the catalytic activity of the studied natural-gas-oxidation catalyst. Accelerated laboratory-scale phosphorus treatment was done to the PtPd/Al2O3 natural gas oxidation catalyst. The effect of phosphorus after low (0.065 M) and high (0.13 M) phosphorus concentration treatments was studied by using an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, N2 physisorption, X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In addition, the behavior of the catalyst was studied by a Gasmet FT-IR gas analyzer. Based on the received results it can be concluded that phosphorus was adsorbed on the surface by chemical bonds forming phosphates (PO4). In addition, the partial transformation of PdO to Pd was observed. Due to the phosphorus adsorption both the CO and CH4 oxidation activities were lower after the phosphorus treatments compared with the fresh catalyst.