A Thesis for the Degree of Master

A Study on Reduction Characteristics of NOX Emissions

by Urea Spray Modeling in a LPG Steam Boiler
with Zeolite-based SCR Reactor
Elvira Fidelia Tanjung
Advisor : Myung-whan Bae
Gyeongsang National University
School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Advanced Energy & Environmental
Combustion Engineering Lab.

INTRODUCTION

SIMULATION PROCEDURES

RESULTS and DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

C
O
N
T
E
N
T
S
2

INTRODUCTION
Background
The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) using urea as a
reducing agent is a promising technique for reducing
nitrogen oxides(Nox) among the exhaust emissions in
combustion devices.
One of the main factors affecting urea-SCR process is the
rapid thermolysis on catalysis reaction inside the zeolitebased catalyst
This topic presents a brief overview of modeling for the
effect of urea spray characteristics on NOx emissions and
NH3 slip in a LPG steam boiler with zeolite-based catalyst by
numerical simulation.
Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

INTRODUCTION
Background
SCR to reduce NOx emissions for IMO Emissions Standard

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

SIMULATION PROCEDURES

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

SIMULATION
PROCEDURES
Simulation
Procedures
Analytical Domain

Computational grid of approximately 785,599 element cells

consists of tetrahedral, hexahedral and pyramid cells.
Finite volume method
The semi-implicit method for the pressure linked equation
algorithm

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

SIMULATION PROCEDURES
SCR Reactor with Zeolite-based Catalyst

Urea Injector Inlet

Outlet

g Pi
Mixin

pe

Exhaust Gas Inlet

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

SIMULATION PROCEDURES
Location of injector spray angle

Various spray angles

in the case of a 4 hole

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

SIMULATION PROCEDURES
Objective

Develop a three-dimensional CFD model based on an

experimental system for porous media coated by the SCR
catalyst with the inclusions of fluid dynamics, chemical
reactions and multi-component gaseous mixture.
General assumptions in this simulation are as follows :
laminar and turbulent flow, adiabatic condition, no
radiation heat transfer, ideal gas, no homogeneous
reaction, no slip wall, uniform gas velocity, temperature
and concentration at the entrance, normal pressure at the
outlet, temperature-dependent gas transport properties for
gaseous mixture and chemical reaction inside the zeolite
catalyst.
Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

SIMULATION PROCEDURES
Physical parameters
Parameter
Boiler load (%)

Value
40

Inlet velocity (u0)(11)

Inlet gas temperature (T0) (K)

60

80

100

0.73147 m/s (20,000h-1)

448.15

512.15

553.15

544.15

Inlet concentration (C0);

NO (ppm)

22

37

61

63

O2 (%)

15.30

10.49

4.71

3.91

CO (ppm)

741.0

140.7

10.80

35.80

NO2 (ppm)

16

10

NOx (ppm)

24

53

71

66

CO2 (%)

3.57

6.81

10.72

11.30

Urea injection amount

(mg/min)

231

233

235

230

Catalyst

Zeolite [M2/nO-Al2O3-xO2-yH2O]

Catalyst size (mm)

150 x 150 x 50

Cell density (cpsi)

100

Inlet Pressure (p0) (MPa)

0.15

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

10

SIMULATION PROCEDURES
Gas Transport Properties

The conservation of mass

The effective conductivity in porous

media

Diffusion coefficient

Porous diffusivity

( ) S m
t

k eff k f (1 )k s
N

Xi
Dm X i M i / M
i 1,i m Di , m
i 1,i m

Dm,eff

Dm

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

11

SIMULATION PROCEDURES

The momentum conservation in catalyst

( ) ( ) p ( ) g F
t

The transport equation for the mixture fraction gas

t
( f ) ( f ) ( f ) Sm Suser
t
t

The NO species transport for thermal and prompt NOX

mechanism

( YNO ) ( YNO ) ( DYNO ) S NO

t

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

12

SIMULATION PROCEDURES

The particle force balance

du p
dt

FD (u u p )

where
term,

FD

g( p )

is an additional acceleration (force/unit particle mass)

is the drag force per unit particle mass and

18C D Re
p d p2 24

Here, u is the fluid phase velocity, u p is the particle velocity, is the

molecular viscosity of the fluid, is the fluid density, p is the density
of the particle, and dp is the particle diameter. Re is the relative
Reynolds number
Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

13

SIMULATION PROCEDURES
Chemical Scheme
The thermal decomposition process for an injected urea
solution droplet in a hot exhaust gas stream is selected
from Yim et al by
(NH2)2 CO NH3 + HNCO
E a ,urea
rther k urea exp
RT

C urea

HNCO + H2O NH3 + CO2

E a ,HNCO
rhyd k HNCO exp
RT

(1)

(2)

C HNCO

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

14

SIMULATION PROCEDURES
Chemical Scheme
The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) process is based on the
reactions between nitrogen oxides and NH 3/urea according to the
following main stoichiometries :
4NH3 + 4NO + O2 4N2 + 6H2O

(1)

2NH3 + NO + NO2 2N2 + 3H2O

(2)

6NO2 + 8NH3

7N2 + 12H2O

(3)

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

15

SIMULATION PROCEDURES
A simple Eley Rideal mechanism of NOx reduction by the standard
SCR reaction from Chae et al. is selected to calculate the NO
reduction and NH3 oxidation inside the SCR reactor. The reduction
rate of NO for ;
4NH3 + 4NO + O2 4N2 + 6H2O

is given by :

rred

Ea , NO
C NO NH 3
k NO exp
RT

NH 3

K NH 3 C NH 3
1 K NH 3 C NH 3

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

16

SIMULATION PROCEDURES
The changes of gas species by heterogeneous chemical reactions
are taken into account by the source term of the species transport
equation in the porous medium layer:

S cM c aM a
where S is the mass source, M is the molecular weight and is the
reaction rate.

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

17

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Comparisons of NH3 conversion efficiency at the entrance

of SCR reactor relative to various spray angles between
the boiler loads of 40, 60, 80 and 100%
Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

18

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

75 spray angle

90 spray angle

135 spray angle

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

19

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Comparisons of NOX emissions and NH3 slip after urea

injection at the back of SCR reactor relative to various spray
angles between the boiler loads of 40, 60, 80 and 100%
Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

20

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Comparisons of NOX emissions before and after urea

injection, and NH3 slip after urea injection at the back of SCR
reactor relative to boiler load between experiment and
simulation in cases of one-, two- and four-hole urea injectors
Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

21

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Comparisons of exhaust gas temperature relative to boiler

load before (inlet) and after urea injection (outlet) at the back
of SCR reactor between experiment and simulation in cases
of one-, two- and four-hole urea injectors
Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

22

CONCLUSIONS
The four-hole urea injector showed better uniformity,
efficiency and mixed urea atomization than the one- and
two-hole urea injectors of axial direction.
The urea injection rate and NOX conversion efficiency
relative to boiler load should be determined by considering
comprehensively the combination of NOX emissions, NH3
slip and reaction temperature.
Modeling using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has
the capacity of simulating flow conditions inside the
exhaust gas pipe. It is also provide rather detailed,
visualized, and comprehensive information compared to
the experiment.
Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

23

RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS
International Proceeding Papers
1.

B. W. Riyandwita, M. W. Bae , E. F. Tanjung and K. Tsuchiya, Evaluation of Gas Transport Properties on

the Process of Urea Gas Decomposition in the Modeling of a Urea-SCR System, Proceedings of 16th Asia
Pacific Automotive Engineering Conference (APAC) (SAE2011-28-0044), 2011.

2.

E. F. Tanjung, M. W. Bae, W. C. Kang and B. H. Song, Comparison between Reduction Characteristics of

NOX Emissions by Experiment and Simulation in a LPG Steam Boiler with Urea-SCR After-treatment,
Proceedings of 6th International Symposium on Mechanics, Aerospace and Informatics Engineering 2012
(ISMAI-06 2012) (ISMAI-EP-04), pp. 190 194, 2012.

3.

E. F. Tanjung, M. W. Bae and J. O. Bae, Numerical Simulation of Urea Spray Characteristics on NOX
Emissions and NH3 Slip in a LPG Steam Boiler with Zeolite-based SCR Reactor, Proceedings of
International Conference of Information Science and Computer Applications (ICISCA 2012), in press.

4.

M. Hastarina, M. W. Bae and E. F. Tanjung, A Study on a Numerical Simulation of Vanadium-based SCR

for LPG Steam Boiler Using Computational Fluid Dynamic, Proceedings of International Conference of
Information Science and Computer Applications (ICISCA 2012), in press.
Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

24

RESEARCH ACHIEVEMENTS
Domestic Proceeding Papers
1.

E. F. Tanjung, M. W. Bae, W. C. Kang and B. H. Song, Effect of Optimal Urea Injection Rate on NO X
Conversion in a Steam Boiler with Zeolite SCR Catalyst by a Numerical Simulation, Proceedings of the
36th Korean Society of Marine Engineering Spring Conference (KOSME-36), pp. 103, 2012.

2.

E. F. Tanjung, M. W. Bae and J. O. Bae, Effect of Urea Spray Characteristics on NOX Emissions and NH3
Slip in a LPG Steam Boiler with Zeolite-based SCR Reactor by Numerical Simulation, Proceedings of the
36th Korean Society of Marine Engineering Fall Conference (KOSME-36), pp. 75, 2012.

3.

M. Hastarina, M. W. Bae, E. F. Tanjung and J. O. Bae, Three-Dimensional Modeling on Reduction of

NOX Emissions by a Urea-SCR Reactor with Vanadium-based Catalyst in a LPG Steam Boiler,
Proceedings of the 36th Korean Society of Marine Engineering Fall Conference (KOSME-36), pp. 76,
2012.

4.

E. F. Tanjung, M. W. Bae and J. O. Bae, 3D Numerical Modeling of Urea Spray Characteristics in a UreaSCR Reactor with Zeolite-based Catalyst, Proceedings of The Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
(KSAE) (KSAE12-Y0031), pp. 105 110, 2012.
Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory

25

Thank You !

Advanced Energy & Environmental Combustion Engineering Laboratory