NEWS RELEASE                                                                                        AUGUST 2013        

Stationary NOx Catalyst Market to Reach $2 Billion in Next 4 Years

The rapid growth of the SCR market for Chinese power plants is resulting in double digit annual increases in the catalyst market. Much of the needed capacity is being added in China. This is the conclusion reached in McIlvaine’s NOx Control World Markets.

China has developed a NOx catalyst manufacturing capability in the last decade and now can produce catalyst with a value of $462 million per year.

Chinese Catalyst Manufacturing Revenues

No.

Annual Revenues

($ Millions)

Catalytic Agent Type

1

94

Honeycomb

2

83

Honeycomb

3

78

Honeycomb

4

62

Honeycomb

5

52

Flat

6

52

Flat

7

41

Honeycomb

Total

462

 

 

Presently, the top supplier can produce catalyst valued at $94 million/yr. Unlike some other products catalyst in China sells at the world prices and in some cases even higher. The third ranked supplier was the first manufacturer and was a result of the relocation of KWH from Germany.

There is substantial import of catalyst as well as some export. There is some difference in performance. In general, plate catalyst designs require more volume to achieve the same efficiency as honeycomb designs. But this is only one parameter.

Originally the only concern was NOx reduction. However, as DeNOx systems began to be applied to high sulfur coal burning power plants, it was discovered that conventional catalyst converts 1 percent of the SO2 to SO3. The SO3 is a worse pollutant than the SO2. To address the problem, catalyst manufacturers developed low conversion catalysts. They achieve the NOx reduction with less SO2 conversion to SO3 but are more expensive.

It was also learned that the NOx catalyst can have a beneficial effect of converting elemental mercury vapor to mercury chloride or other oxidized forms. The oxidized mercury can then be captured in a downstream scrubber. Catalyst manufacturers have developed a range of catalysts which address NOx, SO3 and mercury. In general, the better the catalyst in reducing all three pollutants, the more expensive the product.

 

For more information on NOx Control World Markets, click on: http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php/markets/2-uncategorised/104-n035