RECENT PROGRESS IN HIGH-TEMPERATURE CATALYTIC COMBUSTION

Catalytic combustion has many advantages over conventional flame combustion. Emission of nitrogen oxides can be greatly diminished by low operating temperatures and high energy efficiency can be attained by stable combustion of lean fuels. A great deal of interest is now focused on development of the heat resistant catalyst materials, which can retain the catalytic activity and a large surface area at the operation temperature (> 1200 degrees C). The new concepts of the material design and the preparation technique for combustion catalysts were reviewed. The elucidation of the combustion mechanism is an another important subject for the operation of catalytic combustion. The interaction between the surface reaction and the gas-phase reaction strongly depends on the reaction parameters, the axial distance and the catalytic property. From these results, we discussed the role of the catalyst demanded for the practical application of high-temperature catalytic combustion.