Improved Ferric Oxide Gel Catalysts for Ortho-Parahydrogen Conversion

The rapid increase in the production and applications of liquid hydrogen has focused renewed interest on the catalysts for the ortho-parahydrogen conversion. Although the hydrous ferric oxide catalyst developed by Weitzel and co-workers [1–4] has been used in several large liquid-hydrogen plants, the activity of the catalyst has been found to be extremely sensitive to the method of preparation, composition, and technique of activation. This paper reports the results of an investigation into these factors and shows how the activity of the ferric oxide gel catalyst may be doubled over that previously reported by improvements in the method of activation.