Construction and verification a temperature programmed oxidation unit

Abstract

Temperature programmed oxidation (TPO) is a common technique which is used the coke or carbon deposited on spent catalysts. This method provides useful information obout carbon distribution and coke type on the catalyst surface. This work accomplished the construction of a TPO testing unit. The main reactor is a quartz tube heated by an electric furnace. The temperature is controlled by a digital temperature controller. All the flows are controlled by mass flow controllers. The gas detection parts consist of a methanator and a flame ionization detector. These parts are involved in the conversion of CO2 to CH4. The CH4 is subsequently detected by a flame ionization detector (FID) sensitive to CH4. The completed system was tested with several spent catalysts from alkane aromatization and carbon nanotubes productions projects. It was found that the system gave highly reproducible results and is now working online for testing the coke on spent catalysts.