Removal of NOX from diesel engine exhaust by using different chemical absorbent in a lab-scale packed column system

Abstract

Emissions of NOX from automobile causes various environmental impacts. In order to satisfy the emission norms and standards, it is necessary to reduce the toxic gases from emission. This paper concentrates on designing a packed column and analysis on the selection of an effective absorbent to reduce NOX emission from diesel engines. NOX emission is taken from the exhaust of diesel engine (Kirloskar TV1 Diesel engine). Flue gas inlet to the packed column and the treated gas at the outlet of the packed column are measured using NOX inlet and outlet gas sensors, respectively. Absorbent flow is carried out in a lab-scale packed column experimental setup. Various parameters of the packed column such as liquid: gas ratio, diameter, total height and packing height are determined based on the mathematical modeling. The NOX emission was experimentally measured with various combinations of different absorbents with different flow rate. Based on the experiments, effective absorbents are chosen as NaClO2 and NaOH. Experimental results show chemical absorbent combination with 0.5 M concentration of sodium chlorite and 0.3 M concentration of sodium hydroxide at 80% data acquisition card opening condition is absorbing NOX effectively.