Facile Abatement of Oxygenated Volatile Organic Compounds via Hydrogen Co-Combustion over Pd/Al2O3 Catalyst as Onsite Heating Source

Catalytic combustion of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) usually requires external energy input to hold the desired reaction temperature via electric heating. This work presents an example of internal onsite heating of the catalytic active sites via hydrogen catalytic combustion with air over a conventional Pd/Al2O3 catalyst. Hydrogen combustion was ignited by the catalyst at room temperature without electric heating, and thus the temperatures were readily varied with the concentrations of H2. Representative oxygenated VOCs such as methanol, formaldehyde and formic acid can be completely oxidized into CO2 and water by co-feeding with H2 below its low explosion limit of 4% using Pd/Al2O3 as shared catalyst. The catalytic performance apparently is not sensitive to the sizes of Pd nanoparticles in fresh and spent states, as revealed by XRD and STEM. This provides an option for using renewable green hydrogen to eliminate VOC pollutants in an energy-efficient way.