BOC rolls out trailer-mounted LoTOx NOx control pilot unit.

Business Editors

MURRAY HILL, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 24, 2002

Companies that want to evaluate the effectiveness of the BOC LoTOx(TM) nitrogen oxide (NOx) control technology on emissions can test the LoTOx system at their plant using a mobile, trailer-mounted pilot unit.

The unit enables BOC to optimize the design of the LoTOx NOx control system prior to permanent installation.

BOC has already successfully used the mobile pilot unit to demonstrate performance and optimize system design at a number of companies in the power, metals, petroleum, and pulp and paper industries. The mobile unit characterizes highly variable NOx streams, and the effect of other chemical compounds, and demonstrates multi-pollutant control on a slipstream of flue gas taken from the customer's process and treated in the LoTOx trailer.

Robert Ferrell, vice president of LoTOx business development for BOC, says the demonstrations yield promising results, especially on streams with high sulfur and high particulate loads. "A recent slipstream demo at a 500-MW high-sulfur coal and petroleum coke-fired power plant showed that the LoTOx system didn't only achieve greater than 90% NOx control at predicted ozone demand. It also produced negligible sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide conversion, less than 0.1 percent, versus the 2 percent to 5 percent typically seen with selective catalytic reduction technologies, which aggravates plume appearance and could require additional control equipment."

The LoTOx mobile unit continuously draws in a stream of flue gas to treat and characterize the effect of low temperature oxidation in removing pollutants. Inlet and outlet analyzers monitor and record system performance. After treatment in the mobile unit, the flue gas is returned to the customer's flue gas system. The pilot demonstration usually lasts two to three weeks, with one to two weeks of operational testing.

"Like full-scale LoTOx systems, the mobile unit is easy to install and operate, and is highly tolerant of process variability and plant conditions. Most importantly, it allows our customers to determine how to optimize the LoTOx system based on their process operating conditions. We incorporate these operating factors into our system design, ensuring that users can install the lowest-cost, yet highly effective multi-pollutant air pollution control system," Ferrell said.

The BOC LoTOx technology is a relatively new, but commercially proven air emissions abatement system that uses ozone to selectively oxidize insoluble NOx to highly soluble species. The LoTOx system can be easily installed as a stand-alone system or can be applied to new or existing SOx and particulate scrubber technology.

The LoTOx technology was the recipient of Chemical Engineering Magazine's 2001 Kirkpatrick Award, granted every two years to honor outstanding chemical engineering technology that has been successfully developed and commercialized through group effort.

BOC offers solutions to a wide range of customer environmental needs such as air emissions, potable water and wastewater treatment, clean fuels, and enhanced combustion processes. "The LoTOx technology is a good example of how BOC draws upon its own technical resources and those of its strategic partners to find the best solutions to customers' environmental problems," Ferrell said.

The BOC Group (NYSE:BOX), the worldwide industrial gases, vacuum technologies and distribution services company, serves two million customers in more than 50 countries. It employs some 43,000 people and had annual sales over $6 billion in 2001. Further information about The BOC Group may be obtained on the Internet at http://www.boc.com.