Promotion of Non-thermal Plasma on Catalytic Reduction of NOx by C3H8 Over Co/BEA Catalyst at Low Temperature

The effects of non-thermal plasma on selective catalytic reduction of NO_x by C₃H₈ (C₃H₈-SCR) over Co/BEA catalyst were investigated over a wide range of reaction temperatures (473–773 K). The significant synergistic effect between non-thermal plasma and catalytic reduction by C₃H₈ was exhibited at low temperatures from 473 to 673 K. The synergetic effect diminished with increasing temperature. The NO_x removal efficiency of non-thermal plasma facilitated C₃H₈-SCR hybrid system increased significantly with the increase in NO₂/NO ratio from 0.13 to 1.06 when the specific input energy increased from 0 to 136 J L^?1. The oxidation performance of NO to NO₂ was significantly enhanced by C₃H₈ in the plasma reactor. Results of CO₂/CO ratio and CO₂ selectivity suggested that adding non-thermal plasma improved CO₂ selectivity of C₃H₈-SCR. 200 ppm SO₂ slightly inhibited NO_x conversion of the non-thermal plasma facilitated C₃H₈-SCR hybrid system at below 673 K, whereas it exhibited no obvious effect at over 673 K. Non-thermal plasma was more selective toward NO oxidation than SO₂ oxidation in the presence of C₃H₈. The non-thermal plasma facilitated C₃H₈-SCR hybrid system could be used stably in durability tests with several hundreds ppm of SO₂.