Abstract
Detection of sulfur dioxide (SO2) at high temperature (600�750 oC) in the presence of some interferents found in typical combustion exhausts (oxides of nitrogen (NO2 and NO, "NOx"), CO2, CO, and hydrocarbon (C3H6)) is described. The detection scheme involves use of a catalytic filter in front of a non-Nernstian sensing element. The catalytic filter was a Ni:Cr powder bed operating at 850 oC and the sensing elements were pairs of platinum (Pt) and oxide (Ba-promoted copper chromite ((Ba,Cu)xCryOz) and Sr-modified lanthanum ferrite (LSF)) electrodes on yttria-stabilized zirconia. The Ni:Cr powder bed was capable of reducing the sensing element response to NOx, CO, and C3H6, but the presence of NOx (100 ppm by volume) still interfered with the SO2 response of the Pt-(Ba,Cu)xCryOz sensing element at 600 oC, causing approximately a 7 mV (20%) reduction in the response to 120 ppm SO2 and a response equivalent to about 20 ppm SO2 in the in the absence of SO2. The Pt-LSF sensing element, operated at 750 oC, did not suffer from this NOx interference but at the cost of a reduced SO2 response magnitude (120 ppm SO2 yielded ~10 mV, in contrast to ~30 mV for the Pt-(Ba,Cu)xCryOz sensing element). The powder bed and Pt-LSF sensing element were operated continuously over approximately 350 hours, and the response to SO2 drifted downward by about 7%, with most of this change occurring during the initial 100 hours of operation.
