(570d) Tailoring the Combustion Synthesis of Fe-Al-O Catalysts for Microwave-Assisted Production of Hydrogen from Fossil Fuels

Currently, hydrogen is mainly produced from fossil fuels with enormous CO₂ emissions. New technological routes involving electromagnetic energy input are considered promising for clean, low-cost production of hydrogen. In particular, microwave-assisted thermocatalytic dehydrogenation of fossil fuels could produce hydrogen with high yield and selectivity, while generating valuable carbon byproducts and no CO₂ emissions. The success of this technology critically depends on the availability of materials that effectively absorb microwave radiation and catalyze the dehydrogenation reactions. In the present work, the solution combustion synthesis (SCS) of Fe-Al-O compounds was explored to enable the functional design of such materials. The effects of three parameters (fuel, Fe/Al ratio, and heating mode) on the SCS process and products were investigated to reveal process-structure-property relationships important to microwave-assisted catalysis. This study has demonstrated SCS potential to synthesize Fe-Al-O catalysts with a specific surface area up to 250 m²/g and tunable properties. The combination of the operational parameters that yields the desired phase composition of the products has been determined. The obtained catalysts exhibit excellent absorption of microwave radiation and strong magnetic properties, which could be used for their separation from carbon byproducts.