Open AccessAssessment of copper-iron catalyst supported on activated carbon for low-temperature nitric oxide reduction by hydrogen
Author(s) -
Ibrahim Yakub,
B. Mohamad Hardyman,
James McGregor
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
iop conference series. earth and environmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1755-1307
pISSN - 1755-1315
DOI - 10.1088/1755-1315/765/1/012093
Subject(s) - catalysis , activated carbon , inorganic chemistry , hydrogen , chemistry , temperature programmed reduction , copper , carbon fibers , selective catalytic reduction , oxide , catalyst support , iron oxide , nitrogen , materials science , adsorption , organic chemistry , composite number , composite material
It is pertinent to assess the performance of a sustainable system that can treat nitrogen oxides (NO x ) emissions from combusting biomass waste. Low-temperature selective catalytic reduction is attractive due to the longer catalyst lifetime and the possibility to use carbon-based catalysts. Hence, this study explores this system with the utilization of: (i) a cost-effective catalyst support, i.e. activated carbon derived from abundant biomass waste; (ii) a renewable reductant, i.e. hydrogen; and (iii) Earth-abundant metal catalysts, i.e. copper and iron. The catalyst was prepared by impregnating metal oxides (Cu and Fe) over palm kernel shell activated carbon (PKS). The catalyst was characterised by hydrogen-temperature programmed reduction (H 2 -TPR) and nitric oxide-temperature programmed desorption (NO-TPD). H 2 -TPR revealed an increase in the reducibility, attributed to the synergistic effects between Cu and Fe. However, these catalyst sites favour nitrous oxide (N 2 O) formation as shown via NO-TPD. Meanwhile, the catalyst activity has also been investigated in a fixed-bed reactor. It showed that the 100% conversion can be achieved at 200°C, but the selectivity towards nitrogen formation is as low as 40%. Therefore, investigating the optimum design of PKSCuFe catalyst is justifiable to improve the performance of low-temperature selective catalytic reduction.