Ammonia Concentration Measurement by Catalytic Oxidation

Abstract

An ammonia converter was constructed using a commercially available platinum catalyst, with the aim of applying it for the measurement of ammonia concentrations. The dependence of the ammonia converter efficiency on the reaction temperature and the ammonia concentration was investigated by measuring the concentration of the converted nitric oxide. The results showed that the catalyst almost completely oxidized ammonia into nitric oxide at temperatures above 600°C in the tested range of ammonia concentrations. In addition, by combining the ammonia converter with a chemiluminescent NO_x analyzer we were able to measure the ammonia concentration in an ammonia-nitric oxide mixture to an accuracy of within 3% by making a correction due to the oxygen concentration.