The Need

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions remain a major regulatory and environmental challenge for power generation, industrial combustion, and waste incineration. The dominant abatement technology, selective catalytic reduction (SCR), relies on ammonia or urea, introducing safety, cost, and operational complexity, as well as risks of ammonia slip. Direct catalytic NOx decomposition without reductants has long been pursued but suffers from catalyst poisoning, sensitivity to oxygen and CO₂, and poor selectivity. There is a clear need for a simpler, safer, and more robust NOx removal approach.

The Technology

OSU engineers have developed a chemical looping process based on specialized oxygen‑uncoupling metal oxides to directly decompose NOx into nitrogen and oxygen, without any reducing gas or ammonia. The solid material cyclically removes oxygen from NOx at moderate temperatures, producing nitrogen, and then releases that oxygen in a separate step at higher temperature. By physically separating nitrogen and oxygen formation, the process overcomes equilibrium and selectivity limitations of conventional catalytic approaches while operating in practical reactor configurations.

Commercial Applications

• Post‑combustion NOx control for coal, natural gas, and biomass power plants
• Emissions control for industrial furnaces, kilns, and boilers
• NOx abatement in waste‑to‑energy and incineration facilities
• Retrofit or replacement alternative to ammonia‑based SCR systems

Benefits/Advantages

• No ammonia or reductant required
• High NOx conversion and selectivity
• Robust to flue‑gas components
• Lower system complexity and operating cost