Manufacture of Catalyst Systems for Ammonia Conversion

Platinum catalyst gauzes have been in use since the moment of development of the process of catalyst oxidation of ammonia for production of nitric acid or hydrocyanic acid.Catalyst gauzes are usually made of platinum or its alloys with rhodium and palladium.These precious metals have remarkable properties that make them ideal catalysts for acceleration of the ammonia/oxygen reaction.In 2008,OJSC "SIC ‘Supermetal’" and Umicore AG&Co.KG launched a production line for Pt-alloy-based catalyst systems to be used for ammonia oxidation in the production of weak nitric acid.Catalyst systems consist of a pack of catalyst gauzes and a pack of catchment gauzes,which are made using flat-bed knitting machines and wire-cloth looms.Today,up-to-date catalyst systems MKSpreciseTM are being manufactured,the basic advantages of which are an individual structure of gauzes and composition of the material,which allows to define precisely the position of each gauze in the catalyst pack,a high activity of the catalyst pack,direct catching of platinum and rhodium in the catalyst system,and a reasonable combination of single- and multilayer types of gauzes.This makes it possible to vary the configuration of the catalyst and select an optimum composition of the system to ensure the maximum efficiency of the ammonia oxidation process.We also produce the catchment systems that allow to find the best decision from the economic point view for each individual case.