Thermal gas treatment to regenerate spent automotive three-way exhaust gas catalysts (TWC)

The effect of regeneration on the metal dispersion and catalyst activity of commercial automotive three-way catalysts (TWC) in oxygen, hydrogen and oxy-chlorine at elevated temperatures has been investigated. In addition, characterisation of the catalysts has been performed using XRD, TEM, TPR, CO chemisorption and BET surface area measurements. Activity tests on monolith fragments were conducted in a micro-reactor supplied with real exhaust gases. An increase in activity was observed with oxygen treatment on catalysts showing heavy sintering as well as a high noble metal loading. Hydrogen proved to be an ineffective treatment procedure, whereas the addition of chlorine to the oxygen stream resulted in an activity increase even on catalysts less sintered and with lower noble metal contents. A comparison of the XRD and BET profiles showed no or small chances in the washcoat structure compared to fresh catalysts after successful regeneration. The TEM, TPR and CO chemisorption measurements suggest a decrease in the size of the largest noble metal agglomerates on the catalyst surface, as well as some I'd and RhO restructuring. The oxy-chlorine regeneration procedure is shown to be the most efficient, both regarding the catalyst activity and the metal dispersion. An increase in the amount of noble metal particles with a size of 20-70 nm, coupled with a decrease in size of larger clusters up to 100 nm in size, was observed for this treatment. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.