Performance of Activated‐Carbon‐Supported Ni, Co, and Ni–Co Catalysts for Hydrogen Iodide Decomposition in a Thermochemical Water‐Splitting Sulfur–Iodine Cycle

• Published in: Energy technology (Weinheim, Germany) Germany), 2018-06, Vol.6 (6), p.1104-1111
• Main Authors: Singhania, Amit, Bhaskarwar, Ashok N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activated carbon; Bimetals; Catalysis; Catalysts; Catalytic activity; Conversion; Corrosion resistance; Decomposition; Decomposition reactions; electrochemistry; Hydrogen; hydrogen generation; Iodides; Iodine; Stability; Sulfur; sulfur–iodine cycle; Transmission electron microscopy; water splitting; X-ray diffraction
• ISSN: 2194-4288; 2194-4296
• DOI: 10.1002/ente.201700752

Bimetallic Ni–Co/activated carbon (Ni–Co/AC) and monometallic Ni/AC and Co/AC catalysts were prepared to investigate their catalytic activity for hydrogen‐iodide decomposition in the sulfur–iodine (SI) cycle. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed an average size of approximately 3 nm particles for Ni–Co/AC. Ni–Co/AC possesses a higher ID/IG intensity ratio in Raman spectroscopy than the monometallic catalysts and support, which is an indication of high degree of defects. Hydrogen‐iodide decomposition was performed on a fixed vertical bed quartz reactor at a weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) of 12.9 h−1 and different temperatures (400–550 °C). Bimetallic catalysts exhibited better activity and stability than the monometallic catalysts. The composition of Ni/Co in the bimetallic Ni–Co catalyst played the key role in dictating the activity of catalyst. It was observed that the loading ratio of 3:1 for Ni/Co achieved the maximal hydrogen‐iodide conversion value. Bimetallic Ni(3 %)–Co(1 %)/AC showed excellent time‐on‐stream stability of 70 h for the hydrogen‐iodide decomposition reaction. The post‐reaction characterization studies (X‐ray diffraction and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area measurements) confirmed that the bimetallic Ni–Co/AC catalyst has a stable structure and shows high corrosion resistance against the corrosive hydrogen iodide environment. Also, it was observed that the apparent activation energy of the bimetallic Ni–Co/AC catalyst was smaller than the monometallic Ni and Co catalysts. The effect of iodine on hydrogen‐iodide conversion was also studied. Doing the splits: The catalytic decomposition of hydrogen iodide is one of the reactions of the sulfur–iodine (SI) cycle, which is considered as a promising technology for generating hydrogen in large quantities. Hydrogen is needed in the future as a clean, cheap, light, and renewable energy carrier due to regular depletion of fossil fuels, which result in carbon dioxide emissions.