A comprehensive review of the heavy metal issues regarding commercial vanadium‑titanium-based SCR catalyst

Facing the increasing demand of atmosphere pollutant control, selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology has been widely applied in various industries for NOx abatement. However, in the condition of complicated flue gas components, the heavy metal issue is a great challenge to the catalyst deactivation and atmospheric pollution control. In this review, with the comprehensive consideration of SCR catalysts in heavy metal-rich flue gas scenarios, the distribution character of heavy metals in SCR system is firstly summarized, then the detailed interaction mechanism between heavy metals and the vanadium‑titanium-based catalyst is discussed. Focusing on the mercury oxidation as well as against arsenic/lead poisoning, certain modification strategies are also concluded to develop novel SCR catalysts with multiple functions. Furthermore, the state-of-the-art technologies regarding the regeneration, the valuable metal recovery, and the harmless treatment of the spent SCR catalyst are also reported. This paper provides theoretical guidance for the manufacture of novel SCR catalysts under multiple scenarios, as well as the synergistic control of NOx and heavy metals.