SBIR Phase I: Selective Catalytic Oxidation of Ammonia to Nitrogen for Hot Exhaust Treatment

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will investigate a new family of low-cost non-precious metal ammonia selective oxidation catalysts for use in selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems. The selective catalytic reduction of NO with ammonia/urea is widely applied to combustion exhaust treatment for abating NOx emissions in power plants and diesel engine vehicles. A common problem of using the SCR technology is ammonia slip. Under conditions of incomplete NO conversion or exhaust temperature upswings, NH3 will slip into the exhaust, resulting in a number of environmental problems. This selective catalytic oxidation (SCO) technology can convert the toxic ammonia to nitrogen and water without introducing other reactants into the gas mixture. In this project, powder catalysts will be synthesized and tested at NexTech under simulated diesel engine exhaust atmospheres and characterized by physical and chemical methods. The broader/commercial impacts of this research are to solve the NH3 slip problem existing in the diesel engine SCR system with low cost, and to help reduce NOX emissions by greater than 90% in power plants when stoichiometric or excess amount of ammonia is used in the SCR process. The generated information can also provide new insights into understanding activation process of small molecules, such as NH3, NO, NO2 and O2, on the non-precious metal catalyst surface with acid and redox sites, enabling development of better catalysts for further emission reduction in the future.