Catalytic oxidation of gas-phase mercury over Co/TiO2 catalysts prepared by sol-gel method

Co/TiO2 catalysts prepared by sol-gel method were studied for gas-phase mercury oxidation in this paper. Experimental results revealed that the optimal loading of Co was 7.5%, which yielded more than 90% oxidation efficiency within the temperature range of 120-330 degrees C. The high activity was mainly attributed to the enrichment of well dispersed Co3O4. We also found that oxygen performed a key role in mercury oxidation process, while HCl could corrode the oxidized mercury and release it to gas phase. Thereafter, a modified Mars-Maessen mechanism was proposed and the possible simultaneous oxidization of NO and mercury was studied. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.