Selective Absorption of COX, NOX and SOX
Nitrogen-, carbon- and sulfur oxides emitted with exhaust gases during the combustion of fossil or bio-fuels are among the main sources of air pollution. Furthermore, CO2 emission to the atmosphere has become an even greater concern because of the climate changes. Nowadays different ways to capture pollutents are possible, but due to very high energy consumption they are not long term solutions. Therefore the development of new and economically viable processes to clean emission gasses containing COX, SOX and NOX are highly demanded.
The novel absorbents, which have to be developed in this project for cleaning emission gasses, will be based on ionic liquids. Ionic liquids are molten salts consisting of anions and cations whose melting point is relatively low (below 100°C). Many of the physico-chemical properties of ionic liquids are unique, for instance their ability to selectively dissolve gasses.
Selective Catalytic NOX Removal
The use of bio-fuels as alternatives to traditional fossil fuels has attracted much attention recent years since bio-fuels belong to a family of renewable types of energy sources and do not contribute to the green-house effect. However, present commercial catalysts are not suitable for cleaning of flue-gas generated by biomass firing, thus alternatives are necessary.
Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NOX with ammonia as reductant is the most efficient method to eliminate NOX from flue gases in stationary sources, e.g. via the reaction:
4NO + 4NH3 + O2 → 4N2 + 6H2O
