(6m) In-Situ Drifts Studies on CuNi Catalyst for Ethanol Hydrogen Production

In-situ DRIFTS Studies on CuNi
Catalyst for Ethanol Hydrogen Production

Anand Kumar

Department
of Chemical Engineering, Qatar University, P O Box 2713, Doha, Qatar

Ethanol
dehydrogenation mechanism was investigated over catalysts containing Cu and Ni
metals prepared by solution combustion synthesis. In situ DRIFTS studies were
conducted on individual metals (Cu and Ni) as well as on CuNi alloy to
understand the metal-metal interaction in bimetallic systems and their
implications on reaction pathway. The catalyst synthesis parameters (such as
fuel to oxidizer ratio in combustion synthesis and combustion temperature etc.)
were monitored and correlated with the synthesized materials properties. The
amount of fuel content in the combustion solution was found to greatly affect
the phase and microstructure of the synthesized catalysts. Along with the
microstructure, surface phase distribution was also studied for various fuel to
oxidizer ratio using XPS and changes on surface composition were monitored
after catalyst activation (reduction) and after the ethanol dehydrogenation
reaction. A change in reaction pathway was clearly observed over Cu and Ni
catalysts. Cu mainly favors synthesis of acetaldehyde and acetate whereas Ni
and CuNi both showed more tendencies towards methane and carbon monoxide
formation.

Figure
1:
Postulated ethanol dehydrogenation reaction pathways over Cu and Ni based
catalysts

Research Interests: Heterogeneous catalysis, combustion
synthesis, microfluidic synthesis, nanomaterials, ethanol hydrogen production,
methane reforming, carbon dioxide conversion, fuel cell reactions, solar fuels,
electro-catalysis.

Teaching
Interests: Chemical
Reaction Engineering, Transport Phenomena, Chemical Process Control,
Heterogeneous Catalysis, Mass Transfer, Heat Transfer, Advanced Engineering
Mathematics, Numerical Methods, Natural Gas Processing, Engineering
Economics