Mechanism of Fuel Gas Denitration on the KOH-Activated Biochar Surface

Previous experimental studies have found that biochar after KOH activation can significantly improve the efficiency of NO removal, but its mechanism is still unclear. To investigate the reaction mechanism of this denitration reaction, in this study, the aromatic benzene ring structure was used to simulate the surface of biochar, and the reaction process was calculated by density functional theory (DFT). The reaction process on the pristine biochar was simulated for comparison. The results indicated that there were two potential mechanisms for NO removal and had the identical rate-determining step, with an activation energy of 161.5 kJ/mol. Second, the influence by K coadsorbates on the NO reduction mechanism was studied. The adsorption by K atoms does not alter the last reaction step, but it was found to reduce the activation energy of this rate-determining step (to 129.3 kJ/mol). A third type of reaction mechanism was theoretically studied for the situation with both K and OH coadsorbates on the biochar surface. The reaction mechanism changed with an increase in the overall reaction rate by increasing the pre-exponential factor. In summary, the rate-determining activation energy for the heterogeneous NO reduction was found to decrease in the following order: 161.5 kJ/mol (pristine biochar) → 129.3 kJ/mol (activation by K adsorbates) → 125.8 kJ/mol (activation by both K and OH adsorbates); the pre-exponential factor was found to change in the following order: 6.23 × 10¹⁴ s^-1 (pristine biochar) → 4.86 × 10¹⁴ s^-1 (activation by K adsorbates) → 8.89 × 10¹⁴ s^-1 (activation by K and OH adsorbates). Hence, the role by K adsorbates is primarily to reduce the rate-determining activation energy, while the OH group adsorbate increases the number of active sites on the surface of biochar.