Monday, June 30, 2008
Emerald Grand Ballroom (Sheraton Burlington Hotel and Conference Center)
235

The Oxidation of Carbon Monoxide In Hydrogen by Zeolite-Supported Photocatalysts

Robert Gomez and Howard H. Patterson. University of Maine, Orono, ME

There has been an increasing demand for the transportation industry to develop alternative fuel vehicles which are more environmentally friendly. The Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is poised to replace current hydrocarbon powered engines. Hydrogen, which fuels the PEMFC, is extracted from many sources by steam reformation reactions. However, this reformation produces hydrogen gas containing 1% carbon monoxide, which chemisorbs on the platinum containing anode found in the PEMFC. This prevents the anode from interacting with hydrogen and irreversibly reduces the efficiency of the system. Therefore, efficient and clean methods for the removal of CO are required before hydrogen becomes a commercially viable fuel. The current method of eliminating CO from hydrogen uses transition metal oxide catalysts. While these catalysts have shown promise, the selectivity may be improved by the use of zeolites as supports for the catalytic clusters. Transition oxide clusters supported on zeolites such as ZSM5 and mordenite may work as effective photocatalysts for this reaction. Catalysts were created using Mo(VI) and either ZSM5 or mordenite as a support using standard ion exchange techniques. STEM, XRD and low-temperature solid state luminescence techniques were used to characterize the catalysts, and CO oxidation reactions were conducted under UV light using a quartz test tube reactor, where a gas proportioning valve delivered a gas mixture with specific amounts of CO, oxygen and hydrogen. The preliminary results and analyses from these characterizations and reactions are discussed.