Hydrogen fuel purification from CO admixtures is the important preparing stage of hydrogen before utilizing in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. One of the methods of removing carbon monoxide from the H2-rich mixtures is the preferential CO oxidation to CO2. It is important carrying out this process at temperature lower than 150 °Ñ to provide high selectivity since with increasing of temperature along with target CO oxidation reaction side reaction of hydrogen oxidation can run.
With the purpose of creating effective catalyst, based on monoclinic zirconia for low-temperature hydrogen purification from CO we investigated catalytic properties of oxide catalysts with different ratio of active components (copper and ceria) in wide range of temperature, contact time and gas mix proportion conditions. It was shown, that independent on the reaction conditions, CO conversion in H2-rich mixtures increases with increasing ceria content in catalyst. The highest selectivity has been observed at copper content of 5-10%. The optimal composition of catalyst for purification of hydrogen-rich mixtures has been developed.
Based on these results, we may conclude that monoclinic zirconia may be recommended as perspective support for oxide copper-ceria catalysts for PROX-process at atmospheric pressure, 100°Ñ and space velocity up to 12000 h-1.