Magnesium Elektron, Inc.

Hazel Stephenson

Deborah Jayne Harris

David Alastair Scapens

Heather Bradshaw

Clive Butler

Iryna Chepurna

This invention relates to azirconium hydroxideor zirconium oxide comprising, on an oxide basis, up to 30 wt % of a dopant comprising one or more of silicon, sulphate, phosphate, tungsten, niobium, aluminium, molybdenum, titanium or tin, and having acid sites, wherein the majority of the acid sites are Lewis acid sites. In addition, the invention relates to a catalyst, catalyst support or precursor, binder, functional binder, coating or sorbent comprising the zirconium hydroxide or zirconium oxide. The invention also relates to a process for preparing zirconium hydroxide, the process comprising the steps of:(a) dissolving a zirconium salt in an aqueous acid, (b) addingone or more complexing agents to the resulting solution or sol, the one or more complexing agents being an organic compound comprising at least one of the following functional groups: an amine, an organosulphate, a sulphonate, a hydroxyl, an ether or a carboxylic acid group, (c) heating the solution or sol formed in step (b), (d) adding a sulphating agent, and (e) adding a base to form a zirconium hydroxide, and (f) optionally adding a dopant.

Acidic zirconium hydroxide

This invention relates to an improved amorphous zirconium hydroxide and a method for its production. The hydroxide has a surface area of at least 300 m/g, a total pore volume of at least 0.70 cm/g and an average pore size of between 5 nm and 15 nm, and is prepared by a process which comprises the steps of: a) preparing an aqueous solution comprising sulphate anions and a zirconium salt such that the ZrO:SOratio is 1:0.40 to 1:0.52, (b) chilling the solution to below 25&#xb0; C., (c) adding an alkali in order to precipitate the amorphous zirconium hydroxide, (d) filtering and washing the precipitated zirconium hydroxide with water or an alkali to remove residual sulphate and chloride, (e) hydrothermally treating the zirconium hydroxide at a pressure of less than 3 barg, and (f) drying the zirconium hydroxide. The zirconium hydroxide of the present invention, which can be doped, is particularly useful in catalytic applications.

Zirconium hydroxide

A process is disclosed for the preparation of lithium zirconate and doped lithium zirconates for use as regenerable carbon dioxide sorbants by wet mixing zirconium hydroxide with lithium carbonate and then calcining the mixture. Due to the improved physical properties resulting from the disclosed preparation process, the lithium zirconates produced by this process are capable of absorbing carbon dioxide at high rates and in large amounts.

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Manchester, United Kingdom

Hazel Stephenson