Study on the supported Cu-based catalysts for the low-temperature water-gas shift reaction

This paper presents a study on the influence of support (Al2O3, MgO, SiO2-Al2O3, SiO2-MgO, beta-zeolite, and CeO2) of Cu-ZnO catalysts for the low-temperature water-gas shift reaction. Supported Cu-ZnO catalysts were prepared by the conventional impregnation method, followed by the H-2 reduction. The activity of Cu-ZnO catalysts for the water-gas shift (WGS) reaction was largely influenced by the kind of support; Cu-ZnO catalysts supported on Al2O3, MgO, and CeO2 showed high activity, while those on SiO2-Al2O3, SiO2-MgO and beta-zeolite showed less activity in the temperature range 423-523 K. XRD analysis demonstrated that the copper species were highly dispersed on the supports used in the present study, except for a MgO support. TPR results of a series of supported CuO-ZnO catalysts suggest that the reducibility of CuO is one of the important factors controlling the activity of the WGS reaction over the supported catalysts. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.