Study on the mixing performance of static mixers in selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems

Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is a promising technique for reducing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from diesel engines. Static mixers are widely used in SCR systems before reactors to promote the mixing of ammonia and exhaust streams. This work aims to investigate the effects of the location of static mixers and the volume ratio of two species on mixing quality using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. The simulation results show that a more homogenous ammonia distribution can be achieved at the exit of the pipe if static mixers are placed close to the ammonia injection point or if more ammonia is injected. Another phenomenon found in the study is that the mixing performance of an identical static mixer may behave discrepantly under different flow conditions if using B and C as the evaluating indexes for mixing homogenization.