Slip NH3 is a priority pollutant of concern
to be removed
in various flue gases with NO
x
and CO
after denitrification using NH3-SCR or NH3-SNCR,
and the simultaneous catalytic removal of NH3 and CO has
become one of the new topics in the deep treatment of such flue gases.
Synergistic catalytic oxidation of CO and NH3 appears to
be a promising method but still has many challenges. Due to the competition
for active oxidizing species, CO was supposed to hinder the NH3 selective catalytic oxidation (NH3-SCO). However,
it is first found that CO could significantly promote NH3-SCO over the CuO
x
–CeO2 catalyst. The NH3 conversion rates increased linearly
with CO concentrations in the range of 180–300 °C. Specifically,
it accelerated by 2.8 times with 10,000 ppm CO inflow at 220 °C.
Mechanism studies found that the Cu–O–Ce solid solution
was more active for CO oxidation, while the CuO
x
species facilitated the NH3 dehydrogenation and
mitigated the competition of NH3 and CO, further stabilizing
the promotion effects. Gaseous CO boosted the generation of active
isolated oxygen atoms (Oi) by actuating the Cu+/Cu2+ redox cycle. The enriched Oi facilitated
oxidation of NH3 to NO and was conducive to the NH3-SCO via the i-SCR approach. This study tapped the potential
of CO for promoting simultaneous catalytic oxidation of coexisting
pollutants in the flue gas.