High Temperature Shift Catalysts

The water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) is a reversible slightly exothermic chemical
reaction to convert carbon monoxide into hydrogen.
CO + H
2O ↔ CO2 + H2
The exothermic essence of such reaction indicates that it is desirable to perform
the water gas shift reaction at lower temperatures to obtain high CO conversion.
However, to achieve sufficiently high reaction rates, it is necessary to operate at
higher temperatures, even though the equilibrium composition is not so favorable
under such conditions.In high temperature shift reactors, the WGSR takes place inside an adiabatic reactor
loaded with small tablets of an Iron/Chromium based catalyst promoted with
copper oxide. The active phase of the catalyst is magnetite (the catalyst supplied
in hematite which needs to be carefully reduced into magnetite during startup)
promoted by copper. Copper incorporation into the catalyst structure, providing
a good dispersion as well as small crystallite sizes, will significantly enhance the
intrinsic catalytic activity and drive the reaction more closely to the thermodynamic
equilibrium (low approach to equilibrium). Normally, through utilizing a proper
catalyst and stable operating condition, CO molar composition will be reduced
down to 2-4 (Dry Molar basis) at the reactor outlet.