Research & Development: Catalysis Lab

Applications of catalyst/sorbent-based emissions control systems for cleaning the flue gas of fossil fuel burning power plants have grown considerably in response to tightening environmental control regulations.

Research at B&W is aimed at curbing the emissions of NO_x, Hg, CO, SO₃, NH₃, and greenhouse gases by developing efficient catalysts/sorbents. Main capabilities include:

Mechanistic studies of catalyst/sorbent reactions, formulation design, and surface characterization:

• Micromerticis Autochem temperature-programmed surface reaction system (TPSR) coupled to a Pfeiffer mass spectrometer for determination of reaction kinetics and ative sites (redox, acidic and basic)
• Tristar 3000 for high-quality measurements of BET surface area, pore diameter, pore volume, pore distribution and adsorption capacity
• Combined Renishaw inVia Raman microscope and IlluminantIR™ FT-IR to deliver complementary information about catalyst surface composition

Catalyst/sorbent synthesis:

• Incipient Wetness Impregnation (IWI)
• Co-Precipitation (CP)
• Sol-Gel (SG)
• Deposition-Precipitation (DP)
• Colloidal Crystal Templating (CCT)
• Ion Exchange (IE)
• Solid Combustion (SC)

Bench-scale catalyst/sorbent activity evaluation system:

• Parallel gas blending and supply systems
• Powder and monolith/pellet type reactors
• Auto/manual operation control and data acquisition
• Online Fourier Transformation Infrared (FTIR) gas monitoring system

Promising catalysts and sorbents are scaled up for slipstream field tests or pilot-scale performance evaluation with actual flue gas.

For more information, please contact us.