Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
5-31-1990
Degree Name
Master of Science in Environmental Science - (M.S.)
Department
Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Environmental Science
First Advisor
Henry Shaw
Second Advisor
Joseph W. Bozzelli
Third Advisor
Richard B. Trattner
Abstract
The removal of NO from flue gas with aqueous ferrous cysteine solution as the reducing agent was discovered by S. G. Chang et al. (1988), at University of California, Berkeley. The purpose of this research is to extend the experimental works done by Chang et al., and to find methods to minimize the problems associated with the sensitivity of the medium to oxygen gas and emission of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas. The main objective was to determine the feasibility of using ferrous cysteine in the treatment of NOx emissions from incinerators. In the present study, it was found that most of the NO absorbed is reduced to N2 and N2O in the absence of O2. The results also show that the ratio of N2 to N2O increases as the pH of the scrubbing solutions decreases to 7.5. Higher NO absorption capacity is obtained at the highest experimental temperature of 55°C, decreasing slightly with temperature to 25°C. Finally, it was found that the presence of 4% O2 stopped the absorption within a few minutes. This is due to the rapid oxidation of the ferrous ion to ferric ion. A possible solution to prevent O2 oxidation is to use an electrolytic cell in series with the scrubber to reduce Fe(III) to Fe(II) and maintain the iron chelate in the active ferrous state. This makes possible continuously absorption of NOx by using ferrous cysteine solutions. The feasibility of the electrolytic approach was not, evaluated in this study.
Recommended Citation
Chou, Chun-Chiao, "Removal of nitric oxide from flue gas with ferrous cysteine solutions" (1990). Theses. 2664.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/2664
