Investigation of cobalt promoted Fe/γ-Al2O3 catalyst in catalytic combustion of methane process

Abstract

Catalytic combustion of methane was performed in the presence of two catalysts of 10Fe2O3/γ-Al2O3 and 10Fe2O3-4Co3O4/γ-Al2O3. Reactor tests were carried out at the temperature range of 300 to 550 °C in a fixed-bed quartz reactor. 10Fe2O3/ γ-Al2O3 was prepared via wet impregnation method and its catalytic activity was evaluated in methane combustion reaction in the presence of methane, oxygen and argon gases. In order to study the effect of cobalt promoter on the catalytic activity of iron catalyst supported on gammaalumina, 10Fe2O3-4Co3O4/γ-Al2O3 was synthesized by simultaneous impregnation. Results showed better performance for the cobalt promoted catalyst due to improvement of active sites dispersion. Increase of methane conversion was observed using cobalt promoter, so that methane conversion increased about 4% and 40% at 300 and 500 °C, respectively. 90% methane conversion was obtained using 10Fe2O3-4Co3O4/γAl2O3 catalyst at 550 °C.