Cerium impregnated palm shell activated carbon (Ce/PSAC) sorbent for simultaneous removal of SO 2 and NO—Process study

Abstract

The simultaneous removal of SO 2 and NO from simulated flue gas by cerium oxide supported over palm shell activated carbon (Ce/PSAC) was studied in a fixed bed adsorber. The effects of adsorber temperature, presence of humidity, feed gas concentration and space velocity were studied as the process parameter. The results were illustrated as sorption breakthrough curves. From the experimental results, it was found that at higher space velocity, the SO 2 and NO sorption capacity was reduced. Humidity enhanced the SO 2 sorption capacity but deterred the NO sorption at percentage more than 15%. Temperature played an important role in the simultaneous removal of SO 2 and NO by cerium supported over PSAC. The maximum simultaneous sorption capacity of SO 2 and NO was achieved at temperature 150 °C with 121.7 and 3.5 mg/g, respectively. This study shows that cheap biomass based activated carbon can be a potential sorbent for simultaneous removal of SO 2 and NO from flue gas.