The effect of reduction properties of sepiolite-supported ruthenium catalysts for ammonia synthesis

Ru-based catalysts are known used in many reactions, such as F-T synthesis, benzene hydrogenation and so on. The more important useful is that it was as the second-generation catalysts for ammonia. The conventional process of ammonia synthesis using fused-iron catalysts needs high-temperature and high-pressure. Yet, the Ru-based catalysts were known to have more catalytic active, mild reaction conditions and less sensitive to poisons for ammonia synthesis. The activities of Ru-based catalysts were affected by many factors such as promoter, Ru content, temperature and pressure. In this work, we studied the effect of reduction properties on the activities of sepiolite-supported ruthenium catalyst using TPR and XPS methods and explored the role of promoter and Ru contents on reduction reaction. The results showed that addition of promoter or increased ruthenium contents would promote the reduction properties of ruthenium and increase the activities of catalysts.