Butane-to-Syngas Processing in Novel Micro-Reactors

This work investigates the production of syngas from butane by rhodium doped ceria/zirconia nanoparticles. The main issue of this study is to improve the catalytic performance at intermediate temperatures of 550°C. In the range of 500 to 600°C, a packed bed reactor with catalyst nanoparticles of 2.0 wt% Rh loading and silica-based plugs achieves nearly complete butane conversion with a hydrogen yield of 77%. In a next step, the production of syngas from butane is investigated by using a disk-shaped packed bed reactor containing Rh/ceria/zirconia nanoparticles at 550°C. Disk-shaped reactors achieve high hydrogen (92%) and carbon monoxide (82%) selectivities and complete butane conversion. This increased catalytic performance is due to a remarkably high contribution of Steam Reforming and Dry Reforming following Total Oxidation next to initial Partial Oxidation. Finally, a novel method is introduced to fabricate a ceramic foam containing catalytic nanoparticles by a direct and one-step sol-gelation procedure. The present dissertation proves that the catalyst is well suited to provide small portable butane processing units for applications in combination with micro fuel cells.

Autorentext

Dr. sc. ETH Zurich, Dipl. Masch.-Ing. ETH: Diploma(2005) and Doctorate (2008) in Mechanical Engineering from ETHZurich, Switzerland. Since 2009 Postdoctoral Research Fellow atUniversity of California at Berkeley, USA.