Selective catalytic oxidation of NH3 to N2 for catalytic combustion of low heating value gas under lean/rich conditions

The selective catalytic oxidation (SCO) of ammonia to nitrogen has been examined over 5% Fe/Al2O3, 5% Mn/Al2O3, 20% CuO/Al2O3, 1% Pt/20% CuO/Al2O3, 2% Rh/Al2O3 and a Fe zeolite (Fe-SH-27) under fuel-lean and fuel-rich conditions in a monolith lab-scale reactor. For simulating fuel-bound nitrogen in a low heating value (LHV) gas 400 ppm NH3 was added to the test gas. The SCO performance of the catalysts was tested both with and without water added to the gas stream. For SCO under fuel-lean conditions the Fe-zeolite catalyst exhibited the lowest NOx yield. For SCO under fuel-rich conditions the 20% CuO/Al2O3 was superior with close to zero NOx formation.