Feasibility study of denitrification catalyst prepared from badam shell biochar

Badam shells are a common type of fruit shell waste, yet there is scarce research on using them to produce biochar and applying it in the field of denitrification. This study aimed to utilize badam shells as raw material to produce biochar and evaluate the feasibility of badam shell biochar (BC) as a carrier for denitrification catalysts. Badam shells were carbonized under a N₂ atmosphere at 600 °C for 120 min to prepare badam shell biochar. After treating BC with acid (H₃PO₄ or HNO₃), Mn or Fe is loaded to obtain denitrification catalysts (BC-HN-Mn, BC-HN-Fe, BC-HP-Mn, and BC-HP-Fe). These catalysts exhibit high denitrification activity within the temperature range of 100–300 °C (>80 %, and exceeding 90 % at 250–300 °C). Moreover, they are characterized by a large number of acidic sites and adsorbed oxygen species distributed on their surface, demonstrating excellent resistance to sulfur dioxide poisoning and maintaining high denitrification activity under low oxygen conditions. This study provides a reference for the application of badam shell in Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology.