Structured Catalytic Honeycombs Based on Copper/Ceria for CO Preferential Oxidation in H2-Rich Streams

Hydrogen to be fed to PEM fuel cell requires ultra-low CO content (10 - 50 ppm); consequently, if hydrogen is produced via a reforming process, a purification step, as preferential oxidation of CO (CO-PROX ), is required. Especially for mobile applications, compactness, robustness and low pressure drops are required, thus suggesting the use of monolithic reactors. Indeed, although monoliths have been widely used in exhaust gas cleaning, their application in PROX process is at the early stage and only few papers have been published on this topic. Despite of the interest, few works have been published on structured catalysts based on copper/ceria and in particular the effect of the preparation method and geometrical features have not been systematically addressed. In this work our aim is to cover this lack of knowledge by reporting the effect of the preparation method on the activity of monolithic catalysts towards CO-PROX reaction. Moreover, the effect of geometrical features, as cell density, has been studied on monoliths prepared by the same method.