Paper SS-ThM12
Surface Analysis of Selected Metal-Doped Adsorbent Materials for Logistics Fuels Desulfurization

Thursday, October 21, 2010, 11:40 am, Room Picuris

Transportation fuels, i.e., gasoline, diesel and jet fuels have been identified as a potential hydrogen source for fuel cell applications due to their high energy densities, ease of storage and availability. However, these liquids, especially the diesel and jet fuels, can contain extremely high concentrations of sulfur. If hydrogen or reformate syngas is to be produced from these high sulfur content fuels, catalyst degradation of the reformer system can occur. Additionally, sulfur compounds such as H₂S and COS are capable of poisoning follow-on processing operations and the electrode catalyst of the fuel cell. Therefore, desulfurization is paramount for the development of logistics fuels as a hydrogen production source. Recently titania and silica supported silver have shown high performance as regenerable desulfurization sorbents. A variety of techniques have been employed to specifically investigate the active form of the material, and the nature of the adsorptive sites and their interactions with the support, as well as the adsorbed species. Specifically, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to study the surface chemistry and x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to study the bulk structure of composite materials were utilized. This provides insight into how the Ag/support system enables such high adsorptive capacities.