Investigations of the kinetics and mechanism of the selective methanation of CO in CO2 and H2-rich reformates over Ru supported catalysts

Abstract

This PhD thesis will shine more light on the molecular mechanism of the CO and CO2 methanation over supported Ru catalysts and elucidate the physical origin of the driving force behind the selectivity for CO methanation specifically. This included two parts. First, the performance of commercial, supported Ru catalysts in the selective methanation of CO, various zeolite supported catalysts developed for these purposes and, for comparison, a standard Ru/Al2O3 catalyst was investigated. Second, the mechanistic details of the reaction were studied by various spectroscopic techniques, aiming at a physical understanding of the reaction mechanism and the resulting CO selectivities under conditions typical for selective methanation in H2-rich reformate gases.