Removal of nitric oxide from simulated flue gas using aqueous persulfate with activation of ferrous ethylenediaminetetraacetate in the rotating packed bed

Abstract

Nitric oxide being a major gas pollutant has attracted much attention and various technologies have been developed to reduce NO emission to preserve the environment. Advanced persulfate oxidation technology is a workable and effective choice for wet flue gas denitrification due to its high efficiency and green advantages. However, NO absorption rate is limited and affected by mass transfer limitation of NO and aqueous persulfate in traditional reactors. In this study, a rotating packed bed (RPB) was employed as a gas–liquid absorption device to elevate the NO removal efficiency (η_NO) by aqueous persulfate ((NH₄)₂S₂O₈) activated by ferrous ethylenediaminetetraacetate (Fe²⁺-EDTA). The experimental results regarding the NO absorption were obtained by investigating the effect of various operating parameters on the removal efficiency of NO in RPB. Increasing the concentration of (NH₄)₂S₂O₈ and liquid–gas ratio could promoted the oxidation and absorption of NO while theη_NO decreased with the increase of the gas flow and NO concentration. In addition, improving the high gravity factor increased the η_NO and the total volumetric mass transfer coefficient (K_Gα) which raise the η_NO up to more than 75% under the investigated system. These observations proved that the RPB can enhance the gas–liquid mass transfer process in NO absorption. The correlation formula between K_Gα and the influencing factors was determined by regression calculation, which is used to guide the industrial scale-up application of the system in NO removal. The presence of O₂ also had a negative effect on the NO removal process and through electron spin resonance spectrometer detection and product analysis, it was revealed that Fe²⁺-EDTA activated (NH₄)₂S₂O₈ to produce •SO₄^–, •OH and •O₂^–, played a leading role in the oxidation of NO, to produce NO₃^– as the final product. The obtained results demonstrated a good applicable potential of RPB/PS/Fe²⁺-EDTA in the removal of NO from flue gases.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

rotating packed bed / Fe²⁺-EDTA / sulfate radical / hydroxyl radical / NO removal efficiency

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China International (Regional) Cooperation and Exchange Project (Grant No. 21961160740), the Shanxi Province Applied Basic Research Program (Grant No. 201901D111178) and 2021 Shanxi Postgraduate Innovation Project (Grant No. 2021Y601).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11705-022-2224-5 and is accessible for authorized users.

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