(205e) Development of Nanoscale Ceria-Based Sulfur-Tolerant Catalyst Formulations

The Diesel-based logistic fuel is the main artery of transportation by trucks and other locomotives in the continental US, as well as all across the globe. High temperature fuel cells running on jet fuel reformates are attractive to NASA and the US military due to their lightweight, zero emission and low acoustic signatures. Jet fuels, such as Jet A and JP-8 are already on board in many applications. These fuels, however, are invariably laden with sulfur, which if not removed, takes its toll on the performance and life-time of the reforming catalysts as well as on the SOFC anodes, by way of deactivation and poisoning. Thus, the development of sulfur-tolerant catalysts is critical to realize these goals. In this presentation, results of systematic structural and microstructural characterization on a series of ceria-based nanoscale sulfur-tolerant catalysts (with noble metal loading in the range of 0.33 to 1.0 wt. %) before and after sulfidation experiments conducted at 825°C for soak-time ranging from 4 to 24h, will be presented.