Selective catalytic oxidation of ammonia to N2 over wire–mesh honeycomb catalyst in simulated synthetic ammonia stream

The novel wire–mesh honeycomb (WMH) was reported to be an excellent substrate of active component for selective catalytic oxidation of ammonia under laboratory-simulated synthetic ammonia stream, and was also evaluated in comparison with traditional ceramic honeycomb (CH). WMH possessed higher open frontal area (OAF), larger geometric surface area (GAS), and lower pressure drop compared with CH, which induced the excellent mass- and heat-transfer rate and conversion efficiency. Different active components displayed the different catalytic performance. The active Ag species exhibited better NH3 conversion, and the Cu species could evidently improve N2 selectivity. The addition of Ce species into Cu catalyst promoted the NH3 conversion but decreased in the N2 selectivity. Comparatively, the Ag–Cu/WMH catalyst exhibited higher resistance to high gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) and the superior NH3-SCO activity and N2 selectivity, which was appropriately used to eliminate higher concentration NH3. Moreover, the Ag–Cu/WMH catalyst displayed the excellent NH3 conversion in the long-term stability and accelerated deactivation experiment, which indicated that the Ag–Cu/WMH catalyst would have an extremely potential application in NH3 abatement for synthetic ammonia industry.