Revisiting magnesium oxide to boost hydrogen production via water-gas shift reaction: Mechanistic study to economic evaluation

Herein, we report the use of a MgCeOx-supported Cu (MgCuCe) catalyst with a unique bead structure to augment the water-gas shift (WGS) reaction. The MgCuCe catalyst exhibited an exceptionally high reaction rate of 83 mu mol g(-1) s(-1) at 300 degrees C, compared with that without MgO (30 mu mol g(-1) s(-1)). Very few studies have focused on MgO-supported catalysts owing to the reports on the inferior activity of MgO. However, this paper reports unprecedented enhancements by introducing MgO and illustrates the WGS reaction mechanism: (1) numerous defects promoted water dissociation and subsequent associative mechanism; (2) the labile oxygen in MgO participated in redox mechanisms. The hydrogen production cost realized due to the use of the MgCuCe was 0.63 USD/kg H-2, which is lower than that achieved by using commercial and CeO2-supported catalysts. This study paves the way for exploiting earth-abundant MgO in developing efficient catalysts and contributes to reducing H-2 production costs.

Automated summary

This study presents the use of a MgCeOx-supported Cu catalyst with a unique bead structure to enhance the water-gas shift reaction. The introduction of MgO led to unprecedented improvements in activity, promoting water dissociation and participating in redox mechanisms. The use of MgCuCe resulted in a lower hydrogen production cost compared to commercial and CeO2-supported catalysts, paving the way for the development of efficient catalysts utilizing earth-abundant MgO and contributing to cost reduction in H-2 production.