Carbon-based zero valent iron catalyst for NO_X removal at low temperatures: performance and kinetic study

In order to solve the problem of nitrous oxide (NO_X) removal at low temperatures, the carbon-based zero valent iron (C-ZFe) catalyst was prepared and studied. According to the kinetic study and the obtained kinetic parameters, the De-NO_X reactor was designed to provide information for industrial applications. The box-behnken experimental design (BBD) was used to study the performance of C-ZFe, and the optimized operating parameters were obtained as the temperature was 408.15 K, the catalyst bed height was 140 cm (the space velocity was 459 h^-1), the concentration of NO was 550 ppm, under which the NO_X conversion was 72.7%. A kinetic model based on Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) and Mars Van Krevelen mechanism was used to describe the kinetics for the reduction of NO by C-ZFe at low temperatures. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), surface area and pore size distribution measurements, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results supported the validity of the model proposed. The gas-solid catalytic kinetic process of NO removal by C-ZFe was a quasi-first-order kinetic reaction, the apparent activation energy was 41.57 kJ/mol, and the pre-exponential factor was 2980 min^-1.