Catalytic Pilot Research Articles

Development of Sustainable Technology to Mitigate VOCs Pollution from Air Using a Continuous System Composed of Fe-ZSM-5 Coated on Polypropylene Tubes Coupled with UV Irradiation at the Pilot Scale

In this work, the efficacy of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, for the removal of indoor air in a heterogeneous photo-Fenton catalytic semi pilot reactor was investigated at room temperature. Fe-zeolite socony mobil (ZSM)-5 was used as the adsorptive catalytic material, which was coated on the polyethylene tubes as a solid support. The response of Fe-ZSM-5 to UV dry irradiation was investigated in terms of VOC degradation from the indoor air. Different coating materials were tested in order to achieve better binding and less pore blockage. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs of the Fe-ZSM-5 coated tubes were used for the morphological analysis of the tubes. A complete modular semi pilot reactor (12.51 L) was designed to accommodate the Fe-ZSM-5 coated tubes and UV lamps for UV irradiation, in order to achieve the degradation for VOC and the regeneration of the catalytic material. After completion of the setup, the plant design parameters, such as the linear velocity, surface volume loading rate (SVL), and space retention time (SRT), were calculated.

Utilization of Renewable and Waste Materials for Biodiesel Production as Catalyst

The efficient and economic utilization of natural renewable and waste materials of various industries and biomass having non-homogeneous composition is a new dimension of research for biodiesel pro- duction. A combination of these renewable, waste materials and traditional heterogeneous catalyst can also be looked after for the possible solution of heterogeneous catalytic transesterification. This review discusses industrially derived and naturally occurring materials containing calcium, sodium, potassium etc, which were found instrumental for biodiesel production. About 60 research articles and patents have been reviewed and the findings are analysed in this article for developing industrial scale heterogeneous catalytic pilot plant facilities for biodiesel production. © 2015 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

Stability and Emissions of a Lean Pre-Mixed Combustor with Rich Catalytic/Lean-burn Pilot

Abstract In this work, a reactor network model was developed to study homogeneous gas-phase methane combustion taking place under typical operating conditions of lean pre-mixed combustors piloted by rich catalytic/lean-burn (RCL) systems. In particular, the thermo-kinetic interaction between the pilot stream (i.e. the stream exiting the RCL stage) and the main feeding stream to the homogeneous reactor was investigated in terms of combustion stability and emissions. The homogeneous combustor was modeled as a perfectly stirred reactor (PSR). The pilot stream was mixed with the main feeding stream prior to entering the PSR. Numerical results have shown that the opportunity to stabilize combustion is strongly linked to the presence of hydrogen in the pilot stream. Combustion stability is highly sensitive to variations in fuel split between catalytic pilot and homogeneous reactor. The increase in pilot fuel split (and, thus, in the inlet hydrogen concentration to the PSR) enlarges the operating window of stable combustion (in terms of higher heat losses, lower preheat temperatures and lower residence times), while still achieving NOx and CO emissions lower than 9 ppm (at 15% O2). These results highlight the potential of the RCL technology as a valuable alternative to conventional diffusion flame-based pilots.

Gas turbine engine test of RCL ® catalytic pilot for ultra-low NO x applications

Catalytic combustion offers improved combustion stability extending the lean flame temperature limit to allow ultra-low NO x emissions. Instead of replacing the entire lean-premixed (LP) injector with a catalytic injector, advanced Rich Catalytic/Lean-burn (RCL ®) technology is developed and integrated to replace only the pilot portion of the injector. The pre-reaction within the pilot provides enhanced reactivity reducing the need to use higher temperature flames to stabilize the combustor primary zone. This concept synergistically combines the best features of catalytic combustion and conventional aerodynamically stabilized combustion technology. The present paper discusses the development and engine testing of a set of Taurus 70 injectors equipped with RCL ® pilots for natural gas applications. Testing showed engine NO x emissions of ∼2.5 ppmv corrected to 15% O 2 were achieved at baseload conditions. Engine CO emissions were less than 2 ppm. Combustor acoustics were low (at or below 0.1 psi RMS) during testing. The RCL ® catalytic pilot supported the engine startup and shutdown process without major modification of existing engine controls. These initial results are promising. Further development work is needed to establish long term catalyst durability, engine transient behavior, and advancing the pilot technology to production status.

Textile wastewater treatment and reuse by solar catalysis: results from a pilot plant in Tunisia

Based on results from bench-scale flow-film-reactors (FFR) and aerated cascade photoreactors, a solar catalytic pilot plant has been built at the site of a textile factory. This plant has an illuminated surface area of 50 m2 and is designed for the treatment of 1 m3 h(-1) of wastewater. The preliminary results are presented and compared with a bench-scale FFR using textile wastewater and dichloroacetic acid. Equivalent degradation kinetics were obtained and it was demonstrated that the solar catalytic technology is able to remove recalcitrant compounds and color. However, on-site optimization is still necessary for wastewater reuse and for an economic application.

Advanced Catalytic Pilot for Low NOx Industrial Gas Turbines

This paper describes the design and testing of a catalytically stabilized pilot burner for current and advanced Dry Low NOx (DLN) gas turbine combustors. In this paper, application of the catalytic pilot technology to industrial engines is described using Solar Turbines’ Taurus 70 engine. The objective of the work described is to develop the catalytic pilot technology and document the emission benefits of catalytic pilot technology when compared to higher, NOx producing pilots. The catalytic pilot was designed to replace the existing pilot in the existing DLN injector without major modification to the injector. During high-pressure testing, the catalytic pilot showed no incidence of flashback or autoignition while operating over wide range of combustion temperatures. The catalytic reactor lit off at a temperature of approximately 598 K (325°C/617°F) and operated at simulated 100% and 50% load conditions without a preburner. At high pressure, the maximum catalyst surface temperature was similar to that observed during atmospheric pressure testing and considerably lower than the surface temperature expected in lean-burn catalytic devices. In single-injector rig testing, the integrated assembly of the catalytic pilot and Taurus 70 injector demonstrated NOx and CO emission less than 5 ppm @ 15% O2 for 100% and 50% load conditions along with low acoustics. The results demonstrate that a catalytic pilot burner replacing a diffusion flame or partially premixed pilot in an otherwise DLN combustor can enable operation at conditions with substantially reduced NOx emissions.

ガスタービン用触媒パイロット方式超低ＮＯｘ燃焼器の開発

Low NOx combustion technologies for gas turbines, such as lean premixedflame combustion, have been developed and used for commercial gas turbines to meet stringent NOx regulations. However, lower NOx is required for themore severe regulations in some areas.For developing a practical catalytic combustor, intensive studies have been carried out for the screening of a favourable catalyst, the optimization of monolith sizes, the research of pressureeffects on performances and the confirmation of the effectiveness of a catalytic pilot flame.With these results, an ultra low NOx combustor for a gas turbine, which is based on a catalytic pilot flame and a lean premixed main flame, has been developed and achieved NOx of less than 10 ppm on high pressure combustion tests.High temperature gas, produced by catalytic combustion, is used as a pilot for flame holding of premixed main flames. This manner of combustion has some advantages compared with previous combustion technologies. These advantages are, besides less NOx from catalytic pilot than from diffusion flame pilot, less pressure drop on the setting catalytic pilot in parallel with main flames and high reliability by using smaller catalyst.The catalyst endurance tests are now under being carried out for the practical applications of this ultra low NOx combustor for gas turbines.

Computer application and software development for the automation of a fluid catalytic cracking pilot plant — Experimental results

This application deals with the automation and computer aided operation including monitoring and control of a pilot plant scale fluid catalytic cracking unit. The operation and monitoring of the pilot plant is carried out through graphical process flowsheets of the actual process which are presented on the screen of a personal computer. All operational results and all manipulating actions are logged and stored in a time sequential indexed file that can be recalled at any time. Through the use of automation and computer software a complex unit such the FCC unit can be operated unattended in long runs giving useful results used for process modeling and model evaluation, catalyst and process condition evaluation. Real experimental results will show the trends and the good comparison of the unit operation to the FCC theoretical estimations.

A Dynamic Model for the Methanol Conversion in a Fluidized Bed Reactor

The paper deals with a dynamic mathematical model for a Methanol-to-Olefins (MTO) fluid bed catalytic pilot plant. The fluid bed reactor-regenerator model is used both for rapid catalyst/process analysis for design purposes and for the advanced computer control of the pilot plant. The numerical strategy for model parameters estimation and some considerations concerning the reactor steady-state multiplicity and sensitivity analysis are presented. The model predictions are in satisfactory agreement with the pilot plant experimental data.