Effect of operating conditions towards simultaneous removal of SO2 and NO using copper modified rice husk ash: Role as sorbent and catalyst

Abstract

Simultaneous removal of SO2 and NO from flue gas can be a potential and breakthrough solution to reduce the capital and operating cost of air pollutants control technology, making it more economically feasible. In this study, copper based RHA sorbent was used to adsorb SO2 and NO simultaneously. Effect of operating temperature, concentrations of SO2 and NO towards sorbent sorption activity was studied. The findings from this study revealed that there is no clear trend on the effect of temperature but optimum operating temperature of 100°C was determined to favour both desulfurization and denitrification process. In addition, optimum SO2 and NO concentration were determined as 2000ppm and 500ppm, respectively. Although the optimum operating conditions were determined based on the total mols of pollutants removed by the sorbent but the on-going removal activity by the sorbent during equilibrium stage was not neglected. Optimum adsorption capacity for the derived sorbent was 53.40mgSO2/g sorbent and 6.90mgNO/g sorbent. Characterizations were performed on spent sorbent to identify the various products of desulfurization and denitrification activity. This study revealed that the synthesized sorbent does not solely act as a sorbent but also as a catalyst.