Microwave Plasma Treatment for Catalyst Preparation: Application to Alumina Supported Silver Catalysts for SCR NO_x by Ethanol

Marjorie Foix, Cédric Guyon, Michael Tatoulian, Patrick Da Costa

Chimie Paristech, LGPPTS, Plasma Chemical Engineering Laboratory, Paris, France.
UPMC Paris 6, Sorbonne University, IJLRA, JEan Le Rond d’Alembert Institute, Saint Cyr L’Ecole, France.

DOI: 10.4236/mrc.2013.23011                

Abstract

Thermal treatment either in the presence of oxygen (calcination) or of a reducing agent (reduction) result is all the time a key issue within the preparation of a catalyst. In this work, a microwave plasma treatment was chosen as an alternative to typical calcinations, because it is a more energy efficient process. Thus, a Microwave Fluidized Bed Plasma reactor (MFBP) was employed in catalyst synthesis process under different gas compositions, such as argon and argon/oxygen mixtures over g-alumina supported silver catalysts, which are generally used for selective reduction of NO_x by ethanol. After the first catalytic tests performed in the presence of plasma treated catalyst, it can be concluded that plasma treatment process represents an interesting alternative to conventional calcination during catalyst synthesis, resulting in a more sustainable process, moreover in view of its industrial application. In order to understand the particular effect of plasma treatment, the catalysts submitted to this treatment were carefully characterized by means of thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA) and UV-VIS-NIR.

Keywords

Microwave Plasma; Fluidized Bed Reactor; Catalyst Synthesis; Silver Catalyst; NO_x Reduction

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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