Controlling Nitrogen Oxide Emissions from Industrial Sources

The pollution problem known as acid rain has focused attention on the need to control all major sources of contributing emissions. The use of platinum metal catalysts to control automobile exhaust gases is now well developed but in fact over half the man-made nitrogen oxides exhausted into the atmosphere are emitted from sources other than vehicles, and include power station boilers, industrial boilers and stationary internal combustion engines. Several methods may be used to prevent these emissions, and platinum catalysts, either alone or in combination with one or more of the base metal catalysts currently used, appear to have considerable potential for this application.