Bartholomew, C. H.

Applied Catalysis, A: General (2001), 212(1-2), 17-60 CODEN: ACAGE4; ISSN: 0926-860X. English.

The literature treating mechanisms of catalyst deactivation is reviewed with 152 refs. Intrinsic mechanisms of catalyst deactivation are many; nevertheless, they can be classified into six distinct types: (i) poisoning, (ii) fouling, (iii) thermal degradation, (iv) vapor compound formation accompanied by transport, (v) vapor-solid and/or solid-solid reactions, and (vi) attrition/crushing. As (i), (iv), and (v) are chem. in nature and (ii) and (v) are mech., the causes of deactivation are basically three-fold: chem., mech. and thermal. Each of these six mechanisms is defined and its features are illustrated by data and examples from the literature. The status of knowledge and needs for further work are also summarized for each type of deactivation mechanism. The development during the past two decades of more sophisticated surface spectroscopies and powerful computer technologies provides opportunities for obtaining substantially better understanding of deactivation mechanisms and building this understanding into comprehensive math. models that will enable more effective design and optimization of processes involving deactivating catalysts.