Pilot-scale evaluation of a novel TiO₂-supported V₂O₅ catalyst for DeNOx at low temperatures at a waste incinerator

The removal of NOx by catalytic technology at low temperatures is significant for treatment of flue gas in waste incineration plants, especially at temperatures below 200°C. A novel highly active TiO₂-supported vanadium oxide catalyst at low temperatures (200-250°C) has been developed for the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) de-NOx process with ammonia. The catalyst was evaluated in a pilot-scale equipment, and the results were compared with those obtained in our previous work using laboratory scale (small volume test) equipment as well as bench-scale laboratory equipment. In the present work, we have performed our experiments in pilot scale equipment using a part of effluent flue gas that was obtained from flue gas cleaning equipment in a full-scale waste incineration plant in South Korea. Based on our previous work, we have prepared a TiO₂-supported V₂O₅ catalyst coated (with a loading of 7wt% of impregnated V₂O₅) on a honeycomb cordierite monolith to remove NOx from a waste incinerator flue gas at low temperatures. The NOx (nitrogen oxides) removal efficiency of the SCR catalyst bed was measured in a catalyst fixed-bed reactor (flow rate: 100m³h^-1) using real exhaust gas from the waste incinerator. The experimental results showed that the V₂O₅/TiO₂ SCR catalyst exhibited good DeNOx performance (over 98% conversion at an operating temperature of 300°C, 95% at 250°C, and 70% at 200°C), and was much better than the performance of commercial SCR catalysts (as low as 55% conversion at 250°C) under the same operating conditions.