Influence of the substrate properties on the performances of NH3-SCR monolithic catalysts for the aftertreatment of diesel exhaust: an experimental and modeling study

Journal article, 2011

The effects of structural and geometrical characteristics of wash-coated monolith catalysts on the NO-NO2/NH3 selective catalytic reduction (SCR) activity were experimentally investigated over the same Cu-exchanged zeolite system coated onto honeycomb cordierite substrates with different cell densities, lengths, washcoat loads, and channel shapes. A stacked configuration was also tested. Contrary to previous reports, it was found that both interphase and intraphase diffusional limitations appreciably affected the deNOx efficiency at intermediate to high temperatures, whereas entrance effects did not play a noticeable role in enhancing the NOx conversion. A two-phase 1D+1D dynamic mathematical model of SCR monolithic converters, which explicitly accounts for both gas/solid and intraporous mass-transfer resistances, successfully predicted all of the observed effects using a single set of rate parameters estimated from intrinsic kinetic runs performed over the same catalyst in powdered form, under diffusion-free conditions.