Unlocking the Mystery of Catalyst Poisoning

Colorado, Energy, Federal Agency/Executive Branch, Government Resources, Process, R & D Focus, Resources, Tennessee, Washington

August 12, 2022

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by Asanga Padmaperuma (U.S. Department of Energy) A research team from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory investigates how potassium in biomass feedstocks poisons a catalyst. Their discovery allowed researchers to better understand catalyst health and regeneration during the conversion of feedstocks into biofuels and bioproducts.

The creation of biofuels involves a little bit of nature’s magic. A catalyst, like mixed transition metal oxide, enables a chemical reaction that transforms agricultural waste or a similar renewable feedstock into clean biofuel capable of powering vehicles, airplanes, ships and other engines.

While catalysts are the magicians in that process, they naturally deactivate—or stop working—at varying rates over time and replacing them is costly.

Metals like iron and potassium that are inherent in certain biomass feedstocks interact with the catalyst, poisoning it and causing loss of catalyst function. The rapid catalyst deactivation causes unexpected interruption of operations and the need to replace the catalyst more frequently.

A research team, led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) bioenergy scientist Huamin Wang and supported by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, recently unlocked the mystery of catalyst poisoning by these metals. Their findings have significant implications for biofuels production.

Results from the team’s study, which was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office, were published in ACS Catalysis.

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Researchers discovered that the potassium completely deactivated the catalyst with preference at certain sites, and the preference varied with the potassium content. The higher the potassium, the greater the deactivation. The team was also able to document how potassium poisons different types of active sites on the catalyst.

Ultimately, they found potassium poisoning could be substantially mitigated with a developed regeneration method—a water washing process—that can successfully remove most of the loaded potassium, restoring more than 90 percent of the catalytic activities. READ MORE

Deactivation by Potassium Accumulation on a Pt/TiO2 Bifunctional Catalyst for Biomass Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis (ACS Catalysis)

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