HU RECEIVES $200,000 TO STUDY HARMFUL AIR POLLUTANT

Hampton, VA - Hampton University was recently awarded a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to study the reduction of nitrogen oxide, which causes acid rain and urban smog, for a three-year project. Hampton will design and test a tin oxide-based catalyst to remove large amounts of nitrogen oxide from power plant gases in order to help treat air pollution.

Drs. Jale and Ates Akyurtlu, chemical engineering professors at Hampton, will study how to turn nitrogen oxide into two harmless gases: nitrogen and oxygen.

"The main goal of the research is to design a catalyst which will eliminate nitrogen oxide from power plant stacks," said Jale Akyurtlu.

Nearly 30 million tons of nitrogen oxide is released annually into the earth 's atmosphere and is largely responsible for serious respiratory problems. The U.S. is accountable for about two-thirds of it, which mostly comes from power plants and motor vehicles.

Hampton University professors along with their students will determine whether a tin oxide-based catalyst will be the solution for eliminating nitric oxide, a harmful side product of combustion in power plants, like carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide.

Catalysts usually work at high temperatures, but the tin-based catalyst is expected to work at lower temperatures, and is also being studied by NASA for use in catalytic converters, which turn car exhaust into harmless gas. The idea to use the tin-based catalyst originally came from NASA, and has been used to regenerate carbon dioxide for a space laser to study winds in the atmosphere.

"This is a great evolution and good interaction for both science and technology to go forward," said Jale Akyurtlu about working with the original NASA idea.

The researchers are excited about the potential findings and how it will impact the future, but acknowledge that this is an early step in the research.

"There are many factors that need to be investigated to see what the best conditions are to prepare and use the catalyst," said Ates Akyurtlu. "There are many tests that need to be conducted before we can see this become a commercial product."

The emphasis of the study will be on the catalysts' ability to resist poisoning, which can reduce the life of the catalyst and the effect of temperature on catalyst performance.

"We will look at the composition of the catalyst, the pre-treatment and preparation as well as the cost effectiveness and its long-term performance," said Jale Akyurtlu. "We want to know how it will perform for nitrogen oxide removal in the presence of various stack gas components; also, overtime, whether it will survive under realistic power plant conditions."

The researchers will use simulated smokestack gases and various versions of catalysts to test the effectiveness of the design and the atmospheric output.

"We hope that the findings from this study will result in a feasible industrial process for the abatement of nitrogen oxides from stationary sources," said Jale Akyurtlu.