Catalytic combustion of methane on BaZr(1−x)MexO3 perovskites synthesised by a modified citrate method

The catalytic combustion technology still lacks of catalytic systems stable at high temperatures, such as those of the gas turbine inlet in the last turbine generation. In this paper we tried to solve this problem by fitting transition metals inside a crystal structure which is known to be very stable. Several oxides have been synthesised by a modified citrate method and investigated in the catalytic combustion of methane. Synthesised catalysts consist of a solid solutions with a perovskite structure of formula BaZr(1−x)MexO3, where Me = Rh, Pd, Mn, Ni, Ru, Pt, Co. The goal of the work has been to provide the physicochemical, structural and morphological characterisation and the activity of these catalysts containing different amounts of transition metals, by means of BET, XRD profile fitting and TPC reactivity tests, respectively. The synthesised powders showed a very limited hysteresis between the increasing and decreasing temperature curves and therefore should display no oscillations in working conditions. These systems could be a high temperature alternative to the hexa-aluminates and could avoid the homogeneous post combustion volumes typical of the hybrid and XONON combustors.