REDUCTIVE DEHALOGENATION OF GAS-PHASE TRICHLOROETHYLENE USING HETEROGENEOUS CATALYTIC AND ELECTROCHEMICAL METHODSXiumin Ju, Ph.D.The University of Arizona, 2005Director: Dr. Robert G. ArnoldThe first part of this work investigates catalytic hydrodechlorination (HDC) of gas-phase trichloroethylene (TCE) using 0.5 wt.% Pt/g-Al2O3 and 0.0025 wt.% Pt/SiO2 in packed-bed reactors. TCE was efficiently transformed on the platinum surface using H2 as reducing agent. The main products of the reaction were ethane and chloroethane. In the case of Pt/Al2O3, more than 94% TCE conversion efficiency was maintained for over 700 hours of operation at 100ºC at a residence time of 0.37 seconds. At 22ºC, severe catalyst deactivation was observed. Catalyst deactivation was attributed to coking and chlorine poisoning. A series of treatments including (i) hydrogen gas addition at high temperature (oxygen free) to remove chlorine and (ii) oxygen addition at 500ºC to remove coke were attempted to regenerate the deactivated catalyst. Only hydrogen treatment partially restored catalyst activity. When using Pt/SiO2, catalyst deactivation was severe even at 100ºC, probably due to low surface area of Pt and the silica support. Adding KOH to the packed Pt/SiO2 catalyst during (otherwise) normal operation slowed catalyst deactivation. Adding O2 to the influent improved catalyst activity and slowed deactivation.The second part of this research involves the destruction of gas-phase TCE using an electrochemical reactor similar in design of a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell. With a proton-conducting membrane in the middle, the anode and cathode comprised of carbon cloth and carbon-black-supported Pt were hotpressed together to form a membrane electrode assembly (MEA). TCE contaminated gas streams were fed to the cathode side of the fuel cell, where TCE was reduced to ethane and hydrochloric acid. The results suggest that TCE reduction occurs via a catalytic reaction with atomic hydrogen that is reformed on the cathode's surface rather than an electrochemical reduction via direct electron transfer. Substantial conversion of TCE was obtained, even in the presence of molecular oxygen in the cathode chamber. The process was modeled successfully by conceptualizing the cathode chamber as a plug flow reactor with a continuous source of H2(g) emanating from the boundary.

Pollution from hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) poses a serious challenge to the environmental community. Released from industrial operations, they have contaminated both the atmosphere and groundwater and are considered persistent in both media.1 For over the past 20 years, the practice of synthesizing hydrofluorocarbons as alternatives to chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) has been conducted in an effort to reverse the effects of stratospheric ozone layer depletion. 2,3 However, in doing so these new fluorinated compounds exhibited an unexpected property as a potent global warming greenhouse gas (GHG) with radiative forcing potentials in the range of 100 to 10,000 equivalents greater than carbon dioxide.4 Conversely, HFCs exhibit desirable properties as precision cleaning solvents due to their low surface energy but that use has lead to releases contaminating groundwater resulting in recalcitrant pollution in the form of dense nonaqueous phase liquids (DNAPL).5 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently requested studies on the environmental impact of HFCs with respect to a number of petitions received from various environmental action groups imploring the use of the Montreal Protocol as the vehicle by which to achieve elimination of the compounds from industrial operations.6,7 Additionally, results from studies requested by the international community have shown HFCs to exhibit developmental and neurological damage in animal life along with their impact to humans remaining not completely understood.8,9,10 Therefore, the potential hazards of HFCs to human health and the environment necessitates the development of an effective and environmentally responsible technology for their remediation from groundwater. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has employed the use of various halogenated solvents in its spacecraft cleaning operations at its facilities for many years iv and in that time experienced accidental releases which eventually resulted in environmental contamination.11,12,13 Many of the organic solvents employed in these operations consisted of halogenated compounds with most being partially chlorinated and fluorinated hydrocarbons. Through normal use and operation, releases of these materials found their way into the environs of atmosphere, soil and groundwater. Remediation of fluorinated compounds has not followed the successful path laid by clean-up technologies developed for their chlorinated counterparts.14,15,16,17 Fluorinated compounds are resistant however to those methods due to their unreactive nature stemming from the properties of the strong carbon-fluorine bond. 18 This unique bonding property also ensures that their environmental persistence endures. 19 One particular fluorinated groundwater contaminant, the HFC 1,1,1,2,2,3,4,5,5,5-decafluoropentane (DFP), which serves as an excellent cleaning agent and has been used by NASA since the late 1990’s and still remains in use today, was selected as the focus of this study. 20 For this study, various reductive metal systems were evaluated for their capability towards effective degradation of DFP. These included the metals: iron, magnesium, aluminum and zinc and several bimetallic alloys as well as attempts employing some on carbon support. Variations in protic solvent reaction media and acidic metal activation were also explored. The bimetallic reductive catalytic alloy, magnesium with palladium on carbon support Mg(Pd/C) in aqueous media, proved to be the successful candidate with 100% conversion to simple hydrocarbons. Mechanistic evaluation for degradation is proposed via a series of stepwise catalytic reduction reactions. Kinetic studies revealed degradation to obey second order reaction kinetics. Further study should be conducted optimizing an in situ groundwater delivery method for field application. Additionally, the developed technology should be assessed against other v groundwater fluorocarbon pollutants; either as a method for remediating multiple fluorinated polluted sites or as a polishing agent where all other non-fluorinated halogen pollutants have been abated.

In this work, the steady-state performance of zeolite-based Cu-ZSM-5, vanadium based honeycomb monolith catalysts (V), vanadium-titanium based pillared inter layered clay catalyst (V-Ti PLIC) and vanadium-titanium-tungsten-based honeycomb monolith catalysts (V-Ti-W) was investigated in the selective catalytic reduction process (SCR) for NO removal using NH3 in presence of oxygen. The objective is to obtain the expression that would predict the conversion performance of the catalysts for different values of the SCR process parameters, namely temperature, inlet oxygen concentration and inlet ammonia concentration. The NOx emission, its formation and control methods are discussed briefly and then the fundamentals of the SCR process are described. Heat transfer based and chemical kinetics based SCR process models are discussed and widely used rate order based model are reviewed. Based on the experimental data, regression analysis was performed that gives an expression for predicting the SCR rate for the complete temperature range and the rate order with respect to inlet oxygen and ammonia concentration. The average activation energy for the SCR process was calculated and optimum operating conditions were determined for each of the catalyst. The applicable operating range for the catalyst depends on the NO conversion as well as on the ammonia slip and the N2O and NO2 emission. The regression analysis was repeated for the applicable range and an expression was obtained that can be used to estimate the catalyst performance. For the Cu-ZSM-5, the best performance was observed for 400oC, 660 ppm inlet ammonia concentration and 0.1% inlet oxygen concentration. For the V based honeycomb monolith catalyst, the best performance was observed for 300oC, 264 ppm inlet ammonia concentration and 3% inlet oxygen concentration. For the V-Ti based PLIC catalyst, the best performance was observed for 350oC, 330 ppm inlet ammonia concentration and 3% inlet oxygen concentration. For the V-Ti-W based honeycomb monolith catalyst, the best performance was observed for 300oC, 330 ppm inlet ammonia concentration and 3% inlet oxygen concentration. The conversion performance of all of these catalysts is satisfactory for the industrial application. At the operating conditions listed above, the N2O emission is less than 20 ppm and the NO2 emission is less than 10 ppm. The results were validated by comparing the findings with the similar work by other research groups. The mechanism of SCR process is discussed for each of the catalyst. The probable reactions are listed and adsorption and desorption process are studied. The various mechanisms proposed by the researchers are discussed briefly. It is concluded that V-Ti-W and Cu-ZSM-5 catalyst are very promising for SCR of NOx. The expressions can be used to estimate the conversion performance and can be utilized for optimal design and operation. The expressions relate the SCR rate to the input parameters such as temperature and inlet oxygen and ammonia concentration hence by controlling these parameters desired NOx reduction can be achieved with minimal cost and emission.

V současnosti musí velké energetické podniky k dodržení emisních předpisů, zejména pak vyžadovaných limitů NOx, uplatňovat denitrifikační metody. Tématem předkládané diplomové práce jsou moderních denitrifikační metody a jejich praktické uplatnění v lokálních poměrech uhelného kotle s parním výkonem 640 t.h-1 v elektrárně Počerady. Práce obsahuje rešerši moderních denitrifikačních metod používaných velkými uhelnými kotli se zaměřením zejména na sekundární denitrifikační metody. Jsou uvažovány dvě možné varianty denitrifikace – varianta 1 využívá selektivní katalytickou redukci (SCR) a varianta 2 selektivní nekatalytickou redukci (SNCR) společně s nízkoemisními hořáky a stupňovaným přívodem spalovacího vzduchu. Pro výběr vhodné denitrifikační metody jsou studovány investiční náklady jednotlivých variant – nižší investiční náklady (o 19.4%) slibuje varianta 2. Při srovnávání SCR se SNCR vyšlo najevo, že investiční náklady metody SNCR jsou 5krát nižší než metody SCR. V souladu s investičními náklady, s dispozicí kotle a se složitostí jeho instalace je pro navazující studium problematiky využita varianta 2. Stěžejní část práce se zabývá stanovením optimálního tzv. teplotního okna pro konkrétní metodu SNCR. Těžištěm práce je tepelný výpočet ohniště a části deskového přehříváku pro stanovený rozsah paliv a výkon kotle v rozmezí 60-100%. S uvažováním výsledků z výpočtu jsou navrženy dvě vstřikovací roviny, které mají zaručit vysokou efektivitu denitrifikačního procesu při uvažovaných provozních podmínkách kotle. Diplomová práce rovněž diskutuje obecnou vhodnost instalace SNCR a SCR ve stávajících uhelných kotlích.

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are atmospheric pollutants that pose a serious threat to both the environment and human health. Although catalytic deNOx technologies for engines working under stoichiometric air-to-fuel ratios (i.e., most gasoline engines) are already available, their performance is unsatisfactory under excess air conditions like those under which diesel engines operate. The selective catalytic reduction of NOx with hydrocarbon reductants (HC-SCR) is a potential deNOxsolution for diesel engines, whose operating temperatures are 150-500 ºC. Given that is unlikely for a single catalyst to show acceptable activity throughout this entire temperature span, the use of two catalysts is proposed in this dissertation. Whereas several catalysts active at high temperatures (>300 ºC) are already available, a catalyst showing an acceptable performance at low temperatures (<300 ºC) is yet to be found. Platinum group metals (PGMs) supported on activated carbon have been identified as promising low temperature HC-SCR catalysts. However, these materials show three main drawbacks: 1) the propensity of the carbon support to undergo combustion in an oxidizing environment, 2) a narrow temperature window of operation; and 3) a high selectivity towards N2O (as opposed to N2). To address the first limitation, the use of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as the support has been investigated and found to yield catalysts displaying a higher resistance to oxidation. Further, the acid activation of MWCNTs prior to their use as catalyst support has been explored, following reports than link carrier acidity with improved catalyst performance. In turn, the use of PGM alloys as the active phase has been examined as a means to improve catalyst activity and selectivity. Additionally, kinetic, spectroscopic and mechanistic studies have been performed in an attempt to probe structure-activity relationships in the MWCNTs-based formulations showing the best deNOx performance. The fundamental insights gained through these studies may inform further improvements to HC-SCR catalysts. Finally, the synthesis of the most promising formulations has been scaled-up using commercial metal monoliths as the catalyst substrate and the resulting monolithic catalysts have been tested in a diesel engine for activity in the HC-SCR reaction.

abstract: Widespread use of chlorinated solvents for commercial and industrial purposes makes co-occurring contamination by 1,1,1-trichloroethane (TCA), trichloroethene (TCE), and 1,4-dioxane (1,4-D) a serious problem for groundwater. TCE and TCA often are treated by reductive dechlorination, while 1,4-D resists reductive treatment. Aerobic bacteria are able to oxidize 1,4-D, but the biological oxidation of 1,4-D could be inhibited TCA, TCE, and their reductive transformation products. To overcome the challenges from co-occurring contamination, I propose a two-stage synergistic system. First, anaerobic reduction of the chlorinated hydrocarbons takes place in a H2-based hollow-fiber “X-film” (biofilm or catalyst-coated film) reactor (MXfR), where “X-film” can be a “bio-film” (MBfR) or an abiotic “palladium-film” (MPfR). Then, aerobic removal of 1,4-D and other organic compounds takes place in an O2-based MBfR. For the reductive part, I tested reductive bio-dechlorination of TCA and TCE simultaneously in an MBfR. I found that the community of anaerobic bacteria can rapidly reduce TCE to cis-dichloroethene (cis-DCE), but further reductions of cis-DCE to vinyl chloride (VC) and VC to ethene were inhibited by TCA. Also, it took months to grow a strong biofilm that could reduce TCA and TCE. Another problem with reductive dechlorination in the MBfR is that mono-chloroethane (MCA) was not reduced to ethane. In contrast, a film of palladium nano-particles (PdNPs), i.e., an MPfR, could the simultaneous reductions of TCA and TCE to mainly ethane, with only small amounts of intermediates: 1,1-dichloroethane (DCA) (~3% of total influent TCA and TCE) and MCA (~1%) in continuous operation. For aerobic oxidation, I enriched an ethanotrophic culture that could oxidize 1,4-D with ethane as the primary electron donor. An O2-based MBfR, inoculated with the enriched ethanotrophic culture, achieved over 99% 1,4-D removal with ethane as the primary electron donor in continuous operation. Finally, I evaluated two-stage treatment with a H2-based MPfR followed by an O2-MBfR. The two-stage system gave complete removal of TCA, TCE, and 1,4-D in continuous operation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering 2018

The diesel engine is growing in popularity due to its energy efficiency and solving the emissions issues associated with diesel engine exhaust would clear the way for further growth. The key pollutants are NOx, particulate matter and unburned hydrocarbons. Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysis is likely the best choice for NOx control. In SCR, NH3 selectively reacts with NOx to form N2 – the selectivity refers to NH3 reacting with NOx instead of the abundant O2. Urea is used as the NH3 source, being injected into the exhaust as an aqueous solution where the urea decomposes and NH3 is generated. Spatial resolution characterization techniques have been gaining attention in the catalysis field because of the higher level of information provided. In this thesis, a new spatial resolution technique, called SpaciFTIR (spatially-resolved, capillary-inlet Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy), was developed, which overcomes the interference of water in the detection of NH3 in an earlier developed technique, SpaciMS (spatially-resolved, capillary-inlet mass spectrometry). With the new test method, three SCR topics were addressed. First, the three key SCR reactions were spatially resolved. These are the standard SCR reaction (2NO + 2NH3 + 1/2O2 = 2N2 + 3H2O), the fast SCR reaction (NO + NO2 + 2NH3 = 2N2 + 3H2O), and NO2-SCR, (6NO2 + 8NH3 = 7N2 + 12H2O). Results show that in the presence of NO2, but at a NO2/NOx ratio < 0.5, the fast SCR reaction proceeds followed by the standard SCR reaction, i.e. in series. If the NO2/NOx ratio exceeds 0.5, the NO2-SCR and fast SCR reactions occur in parallel. Compared to the standard integral test method, this spatial resolution technique clearly showed such trends. Secondly, the spatial resolution technique was used to characterize the effects of thermal aging on catalyst performance. It was found that for a highly aged catalyst, there was a radial activity profile due to an inhomogeneous temperature distribution in the process of aging. Aging effects on various key SCR reactions, i.e. NO oxidation, NH3 oxidation, and the reduction reactions, were studied. Last but not least, for the purpose of passive SCR system development, transient NH3 storage profiles along the monolith channel were measured with SpaciFTIR. Passive SCR is a system where the NH3 is generated on an upstream catalyst, such as a three-way catalyst or lean-NOx trap, instead of via urea injection. In such a system, NH3 is therefore not constantly being fed to the SCR catalyst, but “arrives” in pulses. Factors such temperature, NH3 concentration, pulsing time, flow rate and thermal aging were investigated. For the first time, NH3 migration was observed and its effect on SCR reactions along the length of catalyst was studied.

Abstract The decrement of Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emission can slow down the impaction to the natural environment as well as avoiding the global warming become worse continuously. The three coal fired boilers in CSC were designed as capable of multi-fuel burning but its primary fuel is coal. The original designed coal is PCI coal from Australia. The NOx emission generating while using PCI coal is around 320 ppm and can,t meet the local EPA emission requirement set for year 2001, which is 300ppm. To cope with more stringent environmental requirement, the first stage strategy is to evaluate the NOx removal technologies and selecting the optimum one of them to fight against NOx emission. By means of MCDM (Multi-Criteria Decision-Making) methodologies, SNCR is chosen due to its simplicity and acceptable NOx-out ability. The 45% NOx reduction rate can be achieved and the control NOx final output will be lower than 200ppm, which is the promised level to the local EPA. In compromising the NOx reduction requirement and the practical running cost factor, the 240ppm NOx level has been determined for operating the SNCR system. The second stage of NOx reduction evaluation is focused on the coal brands selection. It¡As believed that through the right choose of suitable coal can offer the contribution to both environment and economic. After surveying the different coal composition analysis and carrying out real trial burn, the ADARO coal from Indonesia was picked up from competition and deem as the most environment friendly coal in terms of owning the optimum coal compositions and the lowest pollutants generation including NOx, SO2, as well as ash. As a result, the ADARO coal application is highly successful in the aspects of less pollutant generation and saving cost expenditure caused by the related environment equipment systems operation and maintenance. Obviously, the positive and close relationship between environment and economic has been proved. Base on the real evidence, this paper proves that by choosing the suitable methodologies, the NOx reduction can be accomplished to some extent. The whole environment can be benefited by this action and meanwhile the air pollution tax plus operation and maintenance cost can be reduced further. It¡As hoped that by announcing this paper, the outstanding performance of remarkable NOX reduction outcome and its coat saving advantage can be applied to the whole industrial field. Let¡As work together for the purpose of decreasing the pollutants emission, lightening the harms to the natural environment and fulfilling the duties of protection the all eco system. Key words: Nitrogen Oxide, Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction(SNCR), environmental coal, Multi-criteria decision-making(MCDM)

In this work, the steady-state performance of zeolite-based (Cu-ZSM-5) and vanadium-based honeycomb monolith catalysts was investigated in the selective catalytic reduction process (SCR) for NO removal using NH3. The aim was to delineate the effect of various parameters including pretreatment of the catalyst sample with H2, NH3-to-NO ratio, inlet oxygen concentration, and space velocity. The concentrations of the species (e.g. NO, NH3, and others) were determined using a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer. The temperature was varied from ambient (25 C) to 500 C. The investigation showed that all of the above parameters (except pre-treatment with H2) significantly affected the peak NO reduction, the temperature at which peak NO reduction occurred, and residual ammonia left at higher temperatures (also known as 'NH3 slip'). Depending upon the particular values of the parameters, a peak NO reduction of around 90% was obtained for both the catalysts. However, an accompanied generation of N2O and NO2 species was observed as well, being much higher for the vanadium-based catalyst than for the Cu-ZSM-5 catalyst. For both catalysts, the peak NO reduction decreased with an increase in space velocity, and did not change significantly with an increase in oxygen concentration. The temperatures at which peak NO reduction and complete NH3 removal occurred increased with an increase in space velocity but decreased with an increase in oxygen concentration. The presence of more ammonia at the inlet (i.e. higher NH3-to-NO ratio) improved the peak NO reduction but simultaneously resulted in an increase in residual ammonia. Pretreatment of the catalyst sample with H2 (performed only for the Cu-ZSM-5 catalyst) did not produce any perceivable difference in any of the results for the conditions of these experiments.

Two flow reactor studies, using an electrically heated laminar flow reactor over Vanadia based (V2O5-WO3/TiO2) honeycomb catalyst, were performed at 1 atm pressure and various temperatures. The experiments were conducted using simulated exhaust gas compositions for different exhaust gases. A quartz tube was used in order to establish inert conditions inside the reactor. The experiments utilized a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer in order to perform both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the reaction products. Urea-water solution decomposition was investigated over V2O5-WO3/TiO2 catalyst over the entire SCR temperature range using the temperature controlled flow reactor. The solution was preheated and then injected into pure nitrogen (N2) stream. The decomposition experiments were conducted with a number of oxygen (O2) compositions (0, 1, 10, and 15%) over the temperature range of 227oC to 477oC. The study showed ammonia (NH3), carbon-dioxide (CO2) and nitric oxide (NO) as the major products of decomposition along with other products such as nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of nitric oxide (NO) with urea-water solution over V2O5-WO3/TiO2 catalyst using a laboratory laminar-flow reactor was investigated. Urea-water solution was injected at a temperature higher than the vaporization temperature of water and the flow reactor temperature was varied from 127oC to 477oC. A FTIR spectrometer was used to determine the concentrations of the product species. The major products of SCR reduction were NH3, NO and CO2 along with the presence of other minor products NO2 and N2O. NO removal of up to 87% was observed. The aim of the urea-water decomposition experiments was to study the decomposition process as close to the SCR configuration as possible. The aim of the SCR experiments was to delineate the effect of various parameters including reaction temperature and O2 concentration on the reduction process. The SCR investigation showed that changing parameter values significantly affected the NO removal, the residual NH3 concentration, the temperature of the maximum NO reduction, and the temperature of complete NH3 conversion. In the presence of O2, the reaction temperature for maximum NO reduction was 377?C for ratio of 1.0.