Mechanism of Hg0 oxidation in the presence of HCl over a commercial V2O5–WO3/TiO2 SCR catalyst

Experiments were conducted in a fixed-bed reactor containing a commercial V2O5/WO3/TiO2 catalyst to investigate mercury oxidation in the presence of HCl and O2. Mercury oxidation was improved significantly in the presence of HCl and O2, and the Hg0 oxidation efficiencies decreased slowly as the temperature increased from 200 to 400°C. Upon pretreatment with HCl and O2 at 350°C, the catalyst demonstrated higher catalytic activity for Hg0 oxidation. Notably, the effect of pretreatment with HCl alone was not obvious. For the catalyst treated with HCl and O2, better performance was observed with lower reaction temperatures. The results showed that both HCl and Hg0 were first adsorbed onto the catalyst and then reacted with O2 following its adsorption, which indicates that the oxidation of Hg0 over the commercial catalyst followed the Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism. Several characterization techniques, including Hg0 temperature-programmed desorption (Hg-TPD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), were employed in this work. Hg-TPD profiles showed that weakly adsorbed mercury species were converted to strongly bound species in the presence of HCl and O2. XPS patterns indicated that new chemisorbed oxygen species were formed by the adsorption of HCl, which consequently facilitated the oxidation of mercury.

Hg0 oxidation over V2O5/WO3/TiO2 catalyst in HCl/O2/N2 was proved to follow the Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism. Hg0 and HCl were adsorbed on the sample surface to form an adsorbed state (Hg0ads and HClads). Hg0ads reacts with HClads to form an intermediate complex, which decomposed to V2O5, HgCl2 and water, finishing the reaction cycle.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide