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Show HYBRID L O W NOx PROCESS FOR DESTRUCTION OF BOUND NITROGEN COMPOUNDS Ronald D. Bell General Manager Petrocon Technologies, Inc. Houston, Texas ABSTRACT Petrocon Technologies has acquired a unique process which combines thermal and catalytic reduction steps to destroy nitrogen-containing wastes that results in very low levels of NOx being formed. The technology will be beneficial for meeting certain provisions of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and can be applied to a number of combustion processes, including incinerators, waste-fired boilers, and co-generation units. The main process steps are as follows: 1) thermal and catalytic reduction, 2) cooling of products from reduction steps, and 3) catalytic oxidation. Pilot-scale tests and commercial demonstration sites have shown that NOx and CO levels below 10 ppmv, respectively, can be achieved with 2 % excess O2. Additional testing has shown that the process will destroy N2O which may have formed under certain operating conditions in the thermal reduction step. The technology utilizes Degussa catalysts in the process. Petrocon commercialized the process for I.C. engine based co-generation and process vent applications. A case history is presented which demonstrates the advantages of the Hybrid Low NOx Process over staged, thermal incinerations for a process vent stream containing bound nitrogen hydrocarbons and high concentrations of NOx- INTRODUCTION The Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (CAAA) will have a profound impact on sources that emit air toxics found the new law's list of hazardous air pollutants. Completely restructuring the existing law, Congress has granted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to regulate hazardous emissions by categories of industry rather than individual pollutants and develop control standards bases on "maximum achievable control technology" (MACT) for each category. The geographic coverage of the control programs has also been greatly expanded. Using geographic designations, the new law attempts to regulate sources of nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOC), carbon monoxide (CO), and particulate matter (PM) based on five discreet categories for areas that do not meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone (1). 1 |
