Selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3 over sol-gel-derived CuO-CeO2-MnOx/γ-Al2O3 catalysts

Granular CuO-CeO2-MnOx/γ-Al2O3 catalysts were synthesized by the sol-gel method. The performance of the CuO-CeO2-MnOx/γ-Al2O3 catalysts for the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) was studied in a fixed bed system. Preliminary tests were carried out to analyze the behavior of NH3 and NO over catalyst in the presence of oxygen. The optimum temperature range for SCR over the CuO-CeO2-MnOx/γ-Al2O3 catalysts is 300–400 °C. The catalysts maintain nearly 100% NO conversion at 350 °C. The °C NH3 oxidation experiments show that both NO and N2O are produced gradually with the increase of temperature. The catalysts in this experiment have a stronger oxidation property on NH3, which improves the denitrification activity at low temperature. The over-oxidation of NH3 at high temperature is the main cause leading to a decrease in the NO conversion. The NH3 and NO desorption experiments show that NH3 and NO can be adsorbed on CuO-CeO2-MnOx/γ-Al2O3 granular catalysts. The transient response of NH3 and NO indicates that the SCR reaction proceeds in accordance with the Eley-Rideal mechanism. The adsorbed NO has little influence on the denitrification activity in SCR process.