Background: A ternary cathode material producer found precious-metal catalysts in its sintering kiln exhaust treatment losing activity after just two months in service, driving up replacement frequency and cost.
Diagnosis: Yuanzhen’s technical team ran a joint failure analysis with the customer and confirmed that elevated sodium in the alumina support formed a low-melting phase under kiln atmosphere, sintering and losing the active phase.
Solution and results: We supplied a custom sphere support with Na2O capped at 0.1% and tuned water absorption to the customer’s impregnation line. After the switch, the catalyst replacement cycle extended from two months to more than four, cutting annualized total cost by about 30% — a direct demonstration of the value of carrier customization in industrial catalysis.