Summary:
Researchers at the Ohio State University have discovered a novel catalyst for the reduction of nitric oxide (NO) using methane. NO emission has been linked to acid rain, urban smog that causes respiratory problems in humans, and has an adverse effect on the atmosphere and the ozone. As a result, EPA has imposed increasingly stringent regulations on NO emission, and demand for ways to reduce nitric oxide to an environmentally safe product has risen to a high level.
This invention allows the reduction of NO to harmless N2 gas cheaply by using methane as a reduction agent, and this process also has shown the much desired ability to reduce NO with high selectivity in the presence of relatively high concentrations of O2, H2O, and SO2, a quality that is not present in many other nitric oxide reduction processes.
Potential Applications:
Industrial pollution reduction
Advantages:
- Able to reduce NO in the presence of high concentrations of O2, H2O, and SO2
- Inexpensive; uses methane
