Kinetics of soot oxidation on potassium-copper-vanadium catalyst

Combustion of carbonaceous materials such as diesel engine soot, carbon black, and graphite on a K-Cu-V catalyst supported on -Al2O3 was studied. Catalyst characterization by thermal anal. and x-ray diffraction indicates the formation of mixed K/Cu/Cl and K/V/O phases after calcination at 700. The presence of KCl was also detected. Soot combustion expts. show a dramatic effect on the catalyst, burn off temps. being .apprx.300 lower than those obtained with thermal combustion. Kinetics of soot catalytic combustion was examd. in a differential flow reactor. A linear dependence on both soot mass and O partial pressure was found. Comparable reaction rates with the same dependence on the reactant concns. were detd. also in the case of carbon black. The apparent energy of activation for the catalytic process is 85-100 kJ/mol. The kinetic equation is used to describe the process of catalytic combustion up to conversions of 50%.