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NOx reduction techniques a

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 NOx Reduction Techniques
General information

ƒ Objective
• Gather the internal and external experience in NOx reduction
• Give guidelines how to reduce NOx by process measures and by end of
pipe technology

ƒ Deliverables
• Produce a complete reference book

ƒ Division wide team

• Didier Dumont (CTEO, leader), Andre Auger (CTS), Ismail Boz (CTI) Julie
Desseix (ERN), Rogelio Dupont (CTEO), Wolfgang Kurka (CTEC), Simon
Rice (ATC), Henri Veyrenche (CTI).

ƒ Present Status
• Document completed in November ’05

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 NOx Reduction Techniques

ƒ Target Group:
The document is written mainly for:
¾ TC process and process engineers

¾ Environmental and process managers in BUs which have NOx issues

ƒ Key Messages
ƒ By applying all possibilities of process optimisation, allows to keep most legal

limits for most fuels

ƒ In more difficult situations SNCR is the preferred method

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 NOx Reduction Techniques
Result of the study

ƒ Process optimisation is a first step to be done, which is in

many cases enough to comply with the limits
ƒ Raw mix burnability: Very efficient; Free Silica, composition and PSD
ƒ Operation: Good operation Æ reduction up to 10%; no over-burning; use of
Lucie
ƒ Burner optimisation: Low NOx burners (4 to 8 % of primary air) between 0
and 30% reduction. Lafarge burner is optimised for low volatile fuels (10%
primary air) - can be adjusted in direction of low NOx by reducing the impulse
ƒ Flame cooling: injection of water or waste water can reduce NOx by up to
30%; for high NOx reduction, production loss and increase of heat
consumption are significant

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 NOx Reduction Techniques
Result of the study

ƒ NOX reduction by staged fuel combustion (SFC)

ƒ Princip is creation of a reducing atmosphere in the preheater/precalciner
ƒ NOx and CO react to CO2 and N2
ƒ With staged combustion 800 mg/Nm3 for low reactive fuels and 500 mg/Nm3
should be reachable

ƒ Can be done in three ways:

ƒ In precalciners by splitting tertiary air and fuel feeding points
ƒ Back end injection of (alternative) fuels; simple, but danger of production loss
ƒ Mid-kiln injection of (alternative) fuels; only for long kiln systems

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 NOx Reduction Techniques
Result of the study
ƒ Selective Non Catalytic Reduction (SNCR)
ƒ Injection NH2-X compounds in a temperature window of 800 to 1150 °C;
ƒ Very efficient method; 500 mg/Nm3 and even lower can be reached in most
of the cases
ƒ Simple SNCR installations use solid urea pellets injected; up to 50%
reduction; investment cost low (200 to 500 kEuro), operation cost depends
on cost of Urea
ƒ More complex SNCR installations use liquid ammoniac or other NH3
solutions (photo-water); up to 80 % of reduction, investment cost higher (500
to 1000 kEuro), operation cost depends on reagent, but tendentiously lower
ƒ Combination of staged combustion and SNCR; needs oxidising conditions
for the SNCR; very efficient, normally applied for new kiln lines

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 NOx Reduction Techniques
Result of the study
ƒ End of pipe measure: SCR
ƒ Selective Catalytic Reduction uses a catalyst to have a efficient reduction of NOx
with ammonia in a lower temperature window (300 to 400 °C)
ƒ SCR is state of the art for power plants and waste incinerators
ƒ In a cement plant it can be in the clean gas stream; this needs reheating of the
gas to 350 °C; additional waste gas and CO2
ƒ Or preferable after preheater (gas already t 300 to 400 °C); in this case high dust
load on the catalyst; less a wear than an operation problem; needs special
measures for dust removal from Catalyst
ƒ Up to now few pilot tests
ƒ One permanent installation (Solnhofen/BRD); after a number of optimisations
200mg/Nm3 achievable, but very high investment cost (2.5 to 3.5 M Euro) and
high operation cost; 200 mg/Nm3 seems to be possible

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