Innovative Clean Coal Technology (ICCT): Demonstration of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology for the control of nitrogen oxide (NO{sub x}) emissions from high-sulfur coal-fired boilers. Technical progress report, October 1993--December 1993

The objective of this project is to demonstrate and evaluate commercially available Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) catalysts from U.S., Japanese and European catalyst suppliers on a high-sulfur U.S. coal-fired boiler. SCR is a post-combustion nitrogen oxide (NO{sub x}) control technology that involves injecting ammonia into the flue gas generated from coal combustion in an electric utility boiler. The flue gas containing ammonia is then passed through a reactor that contains a specialized catalyst. In the presence of the catalyst, the ammonia reacts with NO{sub x} to convert it to nitrogen and water vapor. Although SCR is widely practiced in Japan and Europe on gas-, oil-, and low-sulfur coal-fired boilers, there are several technical uncertainties associated with applying SCR to U.S. coals. These uncertainties include: (1) potential catalyst deactivation due to poisoning by trace metal species present in U.S. coals that are not present in other fuels; (2) performance of the technology and effects on the balance-of-plant equipment in the presence of high amounts of SO{sub 2} and SO{sub 3}; and (3) performance of a wide variety of SCR catalyst compositions, geometries and methods of manufacture under typical high-sulfur coal-fired utility operating conditions. These uncertainties are being explored by operating a series of small-scale SCR reactors and simultaneously exposing different SCR catalysts to flue gas derived from the combustion of high sulfur U.S. coal