Modeling of the catalytic removal of CO and NO under lean-burn conditions: Can there be too much catalyst?

The NO + CO + O-2 reaction under net-oxidizing conditions may demonstrate an interesting phenomenon: the conversion of NO to N-2 decreases when the amount of catalyst increases. This behavior has been observed in many experimental studies and, as a rule, it has been attributed to the structural sensitivity of the catalytic reaction. Using the classical theories of heterogeneous catalytic reactions and chemical reactors, we demonstrate that this unusual effect can be well explained by the peculiarities of the reaction mechanism and kinetics of competing reactions. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.