Catalysis Today, Vol.62, No.4, 291-302, 2000
Comparison between methane and propylene as reducing agents in the SCR of NO over Pd supported on tungstated zirconia
It is now well known that when Pd is supported on acidic supports, it becomes highly selective for the reduction of NO by methane in the presence of excess oxygen. It is also known that this promoting effect not only occurs with acidic zeolite supports, but also with acidic zirconia supports, such as sulfated zirconia (SZ) and tungstated zirconias (WZ). However, this promoting effect has not been investigated for the SCR with other hydrocarbons as reducing agents. In this contribution, we have investigated the behavior of a series of Pd/WZ catalysts and compared them using methane and propylene as reducing agents. The results show some important differences when the reducing agent is changed. For example, while with CH4 the addition of W to the catalyst results in an increase in both NO and hydrocarbon conversion, with C3H6 it results in a decrease in activity. At the same time, while the presence of NO accelerates the activation of CH4, it inhibits the activation of C3H6, moving its light-off to higher temperatures. Finally, an important difference between CH4 and C3H6 as reducing agents is regarding the selectivity towards N-2 as opposed to N2O. Using CH4 resulted in much lower production of N2O than using C3H6, over the entire temperature range investigated.