High-loading Pt-alloy catalysts for boosted oxygen reduction reaction performance

To improve performance of membrane electrode assembly(MEA)at large current density region,efficient mass transfer at the cathode is desired,for which a feasible strategy is to lower catalyst layer thickness by constructing high loading Pt-alloy catalysts on carbon.But the high loading may induce unwanted par-ticle aggregation.In this work,H-PtNi/C with 33%(mass)Pt loading on carbon and monodisperse distri-bution of 3.55 nm PtNi nanoparticles,was prepared by a bimodal-pore route.In electrocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction(ORR),H-PtNi/C displays an activity inferior to the low Pt loading catalyst L-PtNi/C(13.3%(mass))in the half-cell.While in H_(2)-0_(2) MEA,H-PtNi/C delivers the peak power density of 1.51 W·cm^(-2) and the mass transfer limiting current density of 4.4 A·cm^(-2),being 21%and 16%higher than those of L-PtNi/C(1.25 W·cm^(-2),3.8 A·cm^(-2))respectively,which can be ascribed to enhanced mass trans-fer brought by the thinner catalyst layer in the former.In addition,the same method can be used to pre-pare PtFe alloy catalyst with a high-Pt loading of 36%(mass).This work may lead to a range of catalyst materials for the large current density applications,such as fuel cell vehicles.

Experimental and simulation of the reactive dividing wall column based on ethyl acetate synthesis

Reactive dividing wall column(RDWC) is a highly integrated unit which combines reaction distillation(RD) with dividing wall column separation technology into one shell, and it realized the chemical reaction and the separation of multiple product fractions simultaneously. In this paper, the reaction of esterification with acetic acid and ethanol to produce ethyl acetate was used as the research system, experiments and simulations of the RDWC were carried out. This system in the traditional process mostly used the homogeneous catalyst(e.g. sulfuric acid). However, in view of the corrosion of the equipment caused by the acidity of the catalyst, we used the heterogeneous catalysts – iron exchange resins – Amberlyst15 and proposed a novel catalyst loading method. Firstly,the reliability of the model of the simulation was verified by the experimental study on the change of liquid split ratio and reflux ratio. After that, the four-column model was established in Aspen Plus to analyze the effects of the amount of azeotropic agent, reflux ratio and acetic acid concentration. Finally, for a fair comparison, the economic analysis was conducted between traditional RD column and RDWC. The results showed that RDWC can save34.7% of total operating costs and 18.5% of TAC.

Effect of catalyst diesel particulate filter aging and catalyst loadings on particulate emission characteristics from a diesel vehicle

In this study,the effect of new and used catalyzed diesel particulate filter(CDPF)with different catalyst loadings on the particulate emissions including the particle mass(PM),particle number(PN),particle size distribution(PSD)and geometric mean diameter(GMD)from a diesel vehicle were investigated based on a heavy chassis dynamometer.Results showed that more than 97.9%of the PN and 95.4%of the PM were reduced by the CDPF,and the reduction efficiency was enhanced by the catalyst loading.After using the CDPF,the PSD transformed from bimodal to trimodal with the peak shifting towards smaller particle size,more nucleation mode particles were reduced compared with accumulation mode ones,but the reduction effect on the accumulation mode particles was more significantly influenced by the catalyst loading.Notably,the CDPF increased the accumulation mode particles proportion,producing a larger GMD.For the used CDPF,its reduction effect on the particulate emissions enhanced,especially for the PM in accumulation mode.The PSD returned to bimodal,but the peak at accumulation mode began to be higher than that at nucleation mode,illustrating that more nucleation mode particles was removed.The aging of the CDPF resulted in greater effect on the PN-based PSD than that of PM-based PSD,but the effect of catalyst loading on the PN and PM emission factors was weakened.The used CDPF further increased the GMD,and the effect of catalyst loading on the GMD was strengthened,a higher catalyst loading led to a reduction in the GMD.

Effect of catalyzed diesel particulate filter and its catalyst loading on emission characteristics of a non-road diesel engine

In this study, the effects of a diesel oxidation catalyst(DOC) coupled with a catalyzed diesel particulate filter(CDPF) with different catalyst loadings on the power, fuel consumption,gaseous and particulate emissions from a non-road diesel engine were investigated. Results showed that the after-treatment had a negligible effect on the power and fuel consumption.The reduction effect of the DOC on the CO and hydrocarbon(HC) increased with the engine load. Further reductions occurred coupling with the CDPF. Increasing the catalyst loading resulted in a more significant reduction in the HC emissions than CO emissions. The DOC could increase the NO_(2)proportion to 37.9%, and more NO_(2)was produced when coupled with the CDPF below 250℃;above 250℃, more NO_(2)was consumed. The after-treatment could reduce more than 99% of the particle number(PN) and 98% of the particle mass(PM).Further reductions in the PN and PM occurred with a higher CDPF catalyst loading. The DOC had a better reduction effect on the nucleation particles than the accumulation ones, but the trend reversed with the CDPF. The DOC shifted the particle size distribution(PSD) to larger particles with an accumulation particle proportion increasing from 13% to 20%, and the geometric mean diameter(GMD) increased from 18.2 to 26.0 nm. The trend reversed with the CDPF and the accumulation particle proportion declined to less than 10%. A lower catalyst loading on the CDPF led to a higher proportion of nucleation particles and a smaller GMD.