Decomposition of Perfluorocompounds on Alumina-Based Catalyst

The control of the atmospheric release of PFCs (perfluorocompounds) is an important environmental problem worldwide. PFCs are powerful greenhouse gases used by the semiconductor and liquid crystal industries as etching and cleaning agents. We developed a catalyst that decomposes PFCs with only water. Al2O3 was selected from the survey of some single metal-oxide catalysts. Addition of another metal-oxide improved the decomposition ratio and durability. The Al2O3-based catalyst decomposed CF4, C2F6, C3F8, C4F8, NF3 and SF6 by more than 99% at 750 degrees Celsius. Furthermore, our catalyst retained a high decomposition ratio as demonstrated by a continuous run for about 4000 hours at 700-750 degrees Celsius. The influence of chlorine as an impurity with regard to the SF6 decomposition ratio on the catalyst was examined. SF6 was decomposed at more than 99% during 8 hours in the presence of 400 ppm chlorine. Chlorine concentration in the outlet gas was less than TLV. No chlorine compounds were found by X-ray diffraction analysis of the used catalyst. That is, the hydrogenation of chlorine did not inhibit the surface catalytic reaction for PFC. Also, CF4 was decomposed at the condition of 1.4% of high concentration. The conversion remained higher than 99% throughout during amore » durability test. Furthermore, we investigated a large-scale decomposition system in the paper.« less