Microchannel reactors with Cu/CeO2-x catalysts for CO removal from H2-rich gas mixtures

A preferential CO oxidation device consisting of an array of 26 parallel microchannel reactors with each a 5 wt% Cu/CeO2~ catalytic coating was designed for application with a 100 We fuel cell system. The reactor device is able to reduce the carbon monoxide concentration in a realistic reformate gas from 1.5 vol.% to 10 ppm at an inlet oxygen to carbon monoxide ratio of 1.5, a WHSV of 240 L g ‘h-, and within the temperature range of 230—240 oC, which is close to the temperature of the low temperature water gas shift reactor. This facilitates the assembling of the CO PrOx and WGS microreactors without the need for an intermediate heat-exchanger to achieve higher efficiencies in the overall fuel processing