In December 2006 the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) and the Dortmund-based process plant contractor Uhde GmbH, a company in the Technologies segment of the ThyssenKrupp Group, signed a licensing agreement in the field of N2O abatement in nitric acid plants.

N2O is a greenhouse gas that is 300 times more potent than CO2. Currently, reduction of N2O is part of the Kyoto protocol and nitric acid plants worldwide are the major industrial process sources. This agreement permits Uhde to employ ECN know-how throughout the world for the catalytic reduction of N2O with hydrocarbons in Uhde’s EnviNOx® process.

EnviNOx® reactor in a nitric acid plant, Linz, Austria.

The Uhde EnviNOx® process, which abates both N2O and NOX in the tail gas of nitric acid plants, has already been implemented on a commercial scale a number of times. Recent EnviNOx® process units that have successfully used ECN know-how include the systems installed in nitric acid plants for Abu Qir Fertilizer Company of Egypt last September and for Hu-Chems Fine Chemical Corporation of South Korea in March 2007. These EnviNOx® systems reduce N2O and NOX emissions by over 98%.

Uhde GmbH
Uhde GmbH is a company in the Technologies segment of the ThyssenKrupp Group and focuses on the engineering and construction of chemical and other industrial plants. The EnviNOx® process is just one result of Uhde's intensive research and development programme in the field of nitric acid plants.

Information:
More information on the N2O abatement technology can be found on the website of the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands, http://www.ecn.nl/en or on the website of Uhde, www.uhde.biz

Contact:
Jan Willem Erisman
ECN Biomass, Coal & Environmental Research
Tel. +31 (0)224 - 56 4155
erisman@remove-this-part-ecn.nl