Pascal/INIST-CNRS

In this study, the investigation of simultaneous removal of nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide from gas emissions produced as a result of propane–butane gas combustion was performed. For this purpose, the special experimental prototype with catalysts of the honeycomb structure with an active layer synthesized by applying a plasma spray coating technique was used. During the present investigation, such active materials as precious metals (Pt) and also economically feasible materials such as copper–chromium oxide (CuO–Cr2O3) and titanium oxide (TiO2) were tested and compared. The mechanism of NOx and CO catalytic removal was described taking into account the NO and NO2 conversion. It was established that the initial CO concentration produced as a result of fuel combustion has a negligible impact on its removal efficiency while the initial CO/NOx ratio has a direct influence on the dependence of NOx removal efficiency on operating temperature. With increasing the CO/NOx ratio not only the NOx reduction efficiency can be increased but also the onset temperature of the catalytic conversion process can be lowered. The obtained results indicated that the efficiency of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides conversion with the use of tested transition metal oxides can achieve 95% and 80%, respectively.

Increasing demands and consumption of humankind make an increase in paper production, extending the accumulation of paper production wastes. Due to legislations pertaining to environmental pollution, it has become necessary to search for new areas where these wastes could be used. Some of the processes such as milling, purification, etc. of fillers in the production of building materials are expensive and their cost reduction is desirable; therefore, the objective of this research is to develop strong and multifunctional rigid polyurethane foam composites from bio‐based polyol that are filled with unpurified and high distribution in size, having paper waste sludge (PWS) particles, and to investigate the possibility to recycle them as filler in polyurethane composites. The rational amount of PWS particles is 5% by foam mass. PWS particles improve thermal conductivity, water vapor resistance, density, compressive strength, and modulus of elasticity as compared to neat polyurethane foam matrix.