Kinetics of ammonia synthesis over Ru/Pr2O3

Abstract We investigated the kinetics of NH3 synthesis over a catalyst consisting of low-crystalline Ru nano-layers supported on Pr2O3. We determined the reaction orders with respect to N2, H2, and NH3 at various temperatures and pressures over Ru/Pr2O3, as well as Ru/CeO2 and Ru/MgO. The reaction orders with respect to N2 were always almost unity for all the catalysts under all the reaction conditions, indicating that the rate-determining step was N N bond cleavage. In contrast, the reaction orders with respect to H2 differed among the catalysts and decreased with increasing pressure and increased with increasing temperature. Under all conditions, the reaction order with respect to H2 was largest over Ru/Pr2O3 and smallest over Ru/MgO, indicating that hydrogen poisoning of the Ru surface was retarded to a greater extent over Ru/Pr2O3 than over Ru/MgO. In agreement with the trends of the H2 reaction orders, the NH3 synthesis rates over Ru/Pr2O3 at 400 °C rose drastically (64 mmol h−1 g−1) as the pressure was increased from 0.1 to 3.0 MPa. Furthermore, decreasing the feed gas H2/N2 ratio at 3.0 MPa effectively increased the NH3 synthesis rate over Ru/Pr2O3, which reached 45 mmol h−1 g−1 at 350 °C at a H2/N2 ratio of 1/0.5.