Activity development and increasing the mechanical strength of high temperature water-gas shift catalyst

Water-gas shift reaction is performed as the key step in the hydrogen industrial plant. In this work, Fe/Cr/Cu high temperature water gas shift catalysts were synthesized by co-precipitation method, using sulfate precursors, in order to improve the catalytic performance and particular emphasis is placed on the mechanical strength and catalytic activity affected by aging time. The prepared and industrial catalysts were compared when they were situated in the operating conditions (at 360oC and 2 bar) and were characterized by BET, XRD, TPR and crushing strength analysis. Increasing the aging time leads to decrease the sintering and specific surface area and increase the mechanical strength of the catalysts. The catalysts prepared with 180 and 270 minutes aging time were shown, 50.5% and 46.5% conversion and 4.46 kg/pellet and 4.53 kg/pellet mechanical strength respectively, that have appropriate performance in comparison with other prepared samples and commercial catalyst.