High throughput experimentation applied to the combustion of methane and a comparison with conventional micro-reactor measurements

High throughput experimentation (HTE) was performed in order to investigate the behavior of various supported palladium catalysts during the catalytic combustion of methane. Results indicate that both titania- and tin-supported catalysts show the highest activity for this reaction. The activity of some of the catalysts analyzed is affected by a reducing pretreatment and, contrarily to widespread opinion, it is shown that CO2 is not inert towards the reaction process and can even have an activating effect on the catalyst, depending on the kind of support used. An acceptable correlation is found between the results obtained in catalytic tests performed in HTE and those obtained in a conventional laboratory micro-reactor. However, HTE results must be interpreted in a qualitative rather than in a quantitative way. Characterization results of catalysts used in both techniques are the same.