Molybdenum Carbide Catalyst Enables Efficient Conversion of Chlorinated Volatile Organic Waste into Syngas through Catalytic Steam Reforming

Catalytic steam reforming offers a groundbreaking approach for converting industrial chlorinated volatile organic compound (CVOC) waste into valuable syngas (H 2 and CO) and recovering HCl. However, the lack of C–Cl bond activation ability in traditional transition metal catalysts results in their insufficient reforming activity toward CVOCs. Herein, a novel molybdenum carbide (β-Mo 2 C) catalyst is developed and loaded onto a γ-Al 2 O 3 support synthesized through a self-assembly method. The γ-Al 2 O 3 support provides abundant unsaturated coordinated Al 3+ ions, which effectively anchor and disperse β-Mo 2 C nanoparticles. In the catalytic steam reforming reaction at 600 °C, the β-Mo 2 C/γ-Al 2 O 3 catalyst achieves a conversion efficiency higher than 95% and syngas yields of 82.4–92.3% for various typical industrial CVOCs. The mechanistic research reveals that the coordination between C and Mo atoms in β-Mo 2 C leads to a slightly electron-deficient state of the Mo sites, accompanied by a high density of unoccupied 4d orbitals. These characteristics are highly advantageous for the adsorption and dechlorination of CVOC molecules. The produced nonchlorinated intermediates can subsequently be oxidized to CO and H 2 by hydroxyl radicals on adjacent Mo sites.