The report documents the travels of a four-member study team in Japan during March 1980 to assess NOx flue gas treatment (FGT) technology and related areas. Overall goals of the study were to obtain new information on current issues concerning application of FGT technology and to update information previously published. A total of 28 equipment vendors, process operators, government agencies, and industry groups were contacted. Substantial recent progress was discovered with regard to commercial applications of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology to gas- and oil-fired boilers. There are several applications where SCR systems are operated continuously and are successfully removing 80% of the NOx from the flue gas stream. Current development and demonstration efforts are aimed at applying SCR technology to coal-fired boilers since that fraction of Japan's total electric power generation is expected to increase to 12.5% in 1995 and since most of the new coal-fired boilers will use FGT technology for NOx control. Since four SCR systems on coal-fired boilers are scheduled to start up in 1980 and 1981, the Japanese activity in the NOx control field should be of considerable interest in the U.S. for at least the next 4 years.

Project Officer: J. David Mobley. "March 1981." "EPA-600-7-81-030." Sponsored by United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development Contract Number: 68-02-3171

The report documents the travels of a four-member study team in Japan during March 1980 to assess NOx flue gas treatment (FGT) technology and related areas.