Low-Temperature H2-deNOx in Diesel Exhaust

Abstract

For NOx removal from diesel exhaust, the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is the most common abatement technology. However, low engine load scenarios such as city driving and cold start phases demand efficient NOx reduction clearly below 200 °C, which is difficult to achieve with SCR. Hence, this work investigates the potential of the low-temperature NOx reduction with H2 in diesel exhaust. A monolithic Pt/WOx/ZrO2 catalyst, recently reported as highly active, was evaluated in synthetic and real diesel exhaust. The monolith demonstrated high deNOx activity between 130 and 215 °C in the synthetic exhaust including peak conversion of 90% with N2 selectivity up to 85%. CO/HC components were shown to inhibit the H2-deNOx conversion thus requiring a pre-oxidation catalyst in practice. Furthermore, studies performed in an optical reactor indicated strong heat evolution along the monolith. As a result, the reaction kinetics was accelerated with an enhanced consumption of H2 limiting the H2-deNOx efficiency above 200 °C. Stationary tests in diesel engine exhaust substantiated the low-temperature H2-deNOx performance of the monolith including NOx conversions up to 80% at temperatures as low as 135 °C.