056 - 057 - NO To NO2 Convetert
056 - 057 - NO To NO2 Convetert
056 - 057 - NO To NO2 Convetert
INTRODUCTION
2 NH3 + 2 NO2
NH4NO3+ N2 + H2O
(4)
Forthcoming European legislation pertaining to heavy duty diesel engines calls for the simultaneous reduction of both particles and NOx emissions. It is now generally assumed, that the EURO 4 emission standards proposed for the year 2005 will be no longer feasible by primary measures alone but will require additional aftertreatment techniques. A possible technique to reduce NOx in lean exhaust is SCR (selective catalytic reduction). Due to toxicological and safety considerations urea is preferred over ammonia as a selective reducing agent. Urea may be regarded as a solid storage compound for ammonia, which is the active agent in both cases. Urea SCR has been investigated by us and others in the last years as the most promising technique to reduce NOx in the exhaust of mobile diesel engines [1, 2]. The main effort is directed to heavy duty engines used in trucks, but attempts are also made to develop a suitable technique for diesel passenger cars. The main reaction of SCR with ammonia is: 4 NH3 + 4 NO + O2
4 N2 + 6 H2O
In the following we report some basic experiments of this highly interesting chemistry. The practical issue of these experiments is to find the lowest possible temperature limit of the fast SCR reaction for the practical application of the process.
EXPERIMENTAL
The experiments were performed in a flow-trough reactor (gas flow 300 lN/h). The base feed gas used was adapted to a typical diesel exhaust gas, containing 10 % O2 and 5 % H2O with balance N2. NO and NO2 were added at various proportions to compose NOx and NH3 was used as reducing agent. The gases at the reactor outlet were analysed by means of an FTIR spectrometer. A ternary catalyst composed of TiO2, V2O5, WO3 was used as a powder and as a monolithic sample. Further details have been given in [5].
RESULTS
(1)
On the typical SCR catalysts based on TiO2-WO3V2O5 the "standard SCR" reaction has a useful rate in the temperature range 250-450C. However, at lower temperatures, the kinetics of this reaction are too slow for the practical application in a mobile SCR system. In a mobile system, only limited catalyst volumes are acceptable and this calls for a higher rate of the reaction. In order to increase the rate of NOx conversion it has been proposed to utilise the fact that the reaction rate of an equimolar mixture of NO and NO2 is much higher [1] ("fast SCR"): 4 NH3 + 2 NO + 2 NO2
4 N2 + 6 H2O
(2)
In a practical system the additional NO2 is produced by an oxidation precatalyst (Pt-based) upstream of the SCR catalyst. NO2 fractions above 50 % of total NOx should be avoided because excess NO2 can only react in a third slower reaction: 4 NH3 + 3 NO2
3.5 N2 + 6 H2O
(3)
It is also well known from the manufacturing process of nitric acid that NO2 and NH3 may form solid ammonium nitrate at low temperatures [3,4]. The reaction mechanism involves the dimerization of NO2 and the overall equation is:
Fig. 1: Performance of monolithic catalyst sample at T = 200C for various ratios of NO2/NOx at GHSV = -1 52000 h . Base feed + 1000 ppm NOx.
57 In the practical application only values of DeNOx at low NH3-slip are of interest. It can be seen that the DeNOx for an NH3 slip of 10 ppm increases from 20 % for pure NO to 95 % with a 1:1 mixture NO + NO2. Expressed in terms of a first order rate law this corresponds to an increase by a factor of 13. The beneficial effect of NO2 may also be observed at higher temperatures, although in a less sensational manner due to the increasing rate of the standard SCR reaction. On the other hand, NO2 fractions above 50 % lead to a decrease of the catalyst performance.
100 Total DeNOx and contributions [%] 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 140 150 160 170 T [C] 180 190 200 Monolith, total Monolith, fast SCR Monolith, NH4NO3 Powder, total Powder, fast SCR Powder, NH4NO3
500
NH3
stop feed
400
600
300 T [C]
200
Fig. 3: NO2 converted due to the fast SCR reaction (2) and ammonium nitrate reaction (4) and resulting total DeNOx 4
[1]
100
REFERENCES
E. Jacob et al., NOx-Verminderung fr Nutzfahrzeugmotoren mit Harnstoff-SCR-Kompaktsystemen (GD-KAT), 19. Intern. Wiener Motorensymposium. 07.-08.05.1998, FortschrittBerichte VDI, Reihe 12, Nr. 348, Bd. 1, 366-86. M. Koebel, M. Elsener, M. Kleemann, UreaSCR: A promising technique to reduce NOx emissions from automotive diesel engines, Catal. Today 2031, 1-11 (2000). A. Mearns, K. Ofosu-Asiedu, Ammonium nitrate formation at low concentration mixtures of oxides of nitrogen, ammonia and water vapour, J. Chem. Biotechnol. 34A, 350, (1984). A. Mearns, K. Ofosu-Asiedu, Kinetics of reaction of low concentration mixtures of oxides of Nitrogen and ammonia J. Chem. Biotechnol. 34A, 341. (1984). M. Koebel, M. Elsener, G. Madia, Reaction Pathways in the SCR Process with NO and NO2 at Low Temperatures, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., in print. Gmelin, Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie, Ammonium, 8. Ed., Lieferung 1, 109 (1936).
0 120
Fig. 2: Efflux of NH3 and HNO3 behind monolithic catalyst sample. For details see text.
An important issue is the decomposition products resulting from a subsequent heat-up of the ammonium nitrate formed. The subsequent thermal decomposition experiment shows that the decomposition yields only ammonia and nitric acid. Within the experimental error and considering the blank adsorption of NH3, half the amount of each NH3 and NO2 adsorbed are released in the thermal decomposition experiment according to: NH4NO3
NH3 + HNO3
[2]
[3]
(5)
[4]
It is well known from the literature [6] that pure ammonium nitrate can also decompose into N2O and water according to: NH4NO3
N2O + 2 H2O
(6)
[5]
In the above experiment no N2O could be detected. Only if the experiment is performed without water in the feed, some N2O ( 10 %) is formed in the subse quent thermal decompostion experiment.
[6]