Grantee Research Project Results

A New NOx, HC, and Small Particle Filter With a Regeneration-In-Place Capability for Stationary Diesel Engine Applications

EPA Contract Number: 68D00280
Title: A New NOx, HC, and Small Particle Filter With a Regeneration-In-Place Capability for Stationary Diesel Engine Applications
Investigators: Nelson, Sid
Small Business: Sorbent Technologies Corporation
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: II
Project Period: September 1, 2000 through September 1, 2002
Project Amount: $225,000
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase II (2000) Recipients Lists
Research Category: Air Quality and Air Toxics , SBIR - Air Pollution , Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)

Description:

Despite recent improvements in engine designs to reduce pollution, diesel engines continue to emit large amounts of NOx, particulates, hydrocarbons (HCs), and other pollutants. Pollution is a problem with both stationary and mobile diesel engines. Although newly developed particle traps have controlled soot emissions to some degree in recent years, no completely satisfactory commercial control technology exists today to treat all diesel engine emissions.

Sorbent Technologies Corporation (Sorbtech) recently developed a simple regenerable filter system that it believes will control diesel engine emissions. The system already has been proven successful in treating aircraft engine emissions in jet engine test cells.

The objective of the proposed project is to demonstrate this new low-cost technology for controlling emissions from diesel engines. During the first year of the project, Sorbtech will scale-up the technology, which it successfully developed and demonstrated in Phase I, as a pilot-scale system. Sorbtech will design, install, and test the pilot system at its facilities in Twinsburg, OH. Changes in the design will be made as, or if, needed. Both one and two NOx-sorbent-bed designs will be studied. After completion of pilot testing at Sorbtech, the system will be moved to the Combustion Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University, where it will be installed and further tested on one or more small diesel engines. During the second year of the project, a larger prototype system will be designed and constructed. After preliminary tests at Sorbtech's laboratories, the system will be installed on a large stationary diesel engine at the Lausche Heating Plant at Ohio

University in Athens, OH, where it will be operated for up to 3 months. During this time, extensive operating and performance data will be collected.

Sorbtech calls its new technology the NOx and Small Particle Filter. In reality, it is two regenerable filters in series. The first filter captures particulates and hydrocarbons; the second captures NOx. The new technology can be classified as a capture and destroy technology, one that requires no additions to the gas stream, such as ammonia or urea, and one that requires very little energy. NOx is captured and then recycled back to the diesel engine where it is destroyed. The high efficiency of Sorbtech's filter system results in nearly zero emissions to the atmosphere. The technology appears to be applicable to most combustion systems.

Supplemental Keywords:

small business, SBIR, air emissions, pollution prevention, engineering, EPA., RFA, Scientific Discipline, Air, Toxics, Waste, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Sustainable Industry/Business, particulate matter, Chemical Engineering, air toxics, Sustainable Environment, Ecosystem/Assessment/Indicators, Ecosystem Protection, Environmental Chemistry, HAPS, VOCs, Chemistry, Technology for Sustainable Environment, Ecological Effects - Environmental Exposure & Risk, Engineering, Chemistry, & Physics, Environmental Engineering, Incineration/Combustion, Ecological Indicators, Nitrogen Oxides, Nox, particulates, combustion systems, diesel engines, hydrocarbon, Sulfur dioxide, small particle filter, SO2, combustion technology, hydrocarbons, regenerable filter system, nitrogen oxides (Nox), Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)

Progress and Final Reports:

Final Report

SBIR Phase I:

A New NOx, HC, and Small Particle Filter With a Regeneration-In-Place Capability for Stationary Diesel-Engine Applications  | Final Report