Cogeneration catalysts

Cogeneration plants are by now commonly found in our country. Unfortunately however, the problem of the atmospheric emissions tied to such plants is becoming increasingly more important inasmuch as cogeneration combustion releases very harmful substances into the atmosphere that necessarily have to be treated. The emissions of pollutants can be cut thanks to the use of specific cogeneration catalysts able to transform the polluting substances released by these plants. Besides cogeneration catalysts, the use of biodiesel fuel also allows considerably cutting emissions. Cogeneration is an important energy-saving instrument because it manages to use the energy wastefully discharged in power stations, power generators, solid household wastes and biomasses. For this reason, in the last few years, the development of this type of plant has speeded up considerably, making the problem of atmospheric emissions increasingly more serious; in fact, the majority of currently available cogeneration units consists of diesel engines, often not of recent construction, which produce pollutant emissions above permitted limits. That is why these plants have to be equipped with cogeneration catalysts able to cut carbon oxide (CO) emissions. Cogeneration catalysts are generally designed and sized individually for each specific plant to cater for the different pollutant emission cutting requirements; normally, cogeneration catalysts feature a compartment for the more practical and faster replacement of the catalytic cartridge only. Cogeneration catalysts can be of the oxidation or trivalent type, depending on the type of application.