Hydrocarbon Processing Catalytic Combustion and Partial Oxidation to Syngas

Hydrocarbon Processing Catalytic Combustion and Partial Oxidation to Syngas 

The title reactions of this chapter share a special feature compared to other catalytic oxidation processes. Given the proper set of reaction conditions, the target products of each process are the most thermodynamically stable combination of molecules. Unless other criteria exist (and we will come back to this later), the main role of the catalyst is therefore to reduce the activation energy of the process, to make it proceed under milder conditions. 

Both title processes may be run without a catalystAdding a catalyst to the process has the advantage of decreasing the activation energy of the reaction, so the processes may be run under milder conditions. However, since catalysts are susceptible to poisoning (by sulfur, for example), additional upstream gas cleaning may be required in the catalytic processes. 

The data presented in Figs. 8.1 and 8.2 show that syngas may be obtained selectively by thermodynamic equilibrium at temperatures around 1,000°C. However, in order to produce syngas selectively at less than 1,000°C, a catalyst with a kinetic selectivity for the partial oxidation of hydrocarbons to synthesis gas needs to be developed. The status on this approach is described in Sec. 8.2.2. 

---