The main activities of the catalytic materials and processes laboratory basically involve:

• the preparation of catalytic materials and sorbents;
• the measurement of the performance of catalysts used in flue gas treatment;
• pollutant adsorption tests on sorbents operating in fixed bed or fluidized bed systems.

In addition to benchtop equipment used for the preparation of catalytic materials and sorbents, the laboratory is equipped with the following two test circuits:

• circuit for measuring the performance of honeycomb monolith or plate structured catalysts, in the abatement of air pollutants (mainly NOx and Hg) through the SCR-DeNOx catalytic process with ammonia. Recently, the circuit has been implemented using a reactor to determine the efficiency of catalytic filters, for the simultaneous abatement of NO and particulate matter from coal flue gas, and a reactor for measuring the activity of catalytic films deposited on metal, to be used on the heat exchange surface of the Steam Generator of combined cycles for the purpose of simultaneous NO abatement and heat recovery;
• circuit for determining the performance of powdered or pellet materials in both CO capture₂ through an absorption process with solid sorbents and NOx abatement through an SCR-DeNOx process with ammonia.

Both circuits are equipped with analyzers for all gaseous species of interest (NO, NH₃, SO₂, N₂O, CO, CO₂) and are fed with gaseous currents whose composition simulates that of combustion fumes, thus operating under conditions close to real operating conditions.