Process for decomposing nitrous oxide from a gas stream

Abstract

The invention relates to a process for decomposing nitrous oxide from a gas stream (1), comprising: (a) heating the gas stream (1) and splitting the gas stream (1) into at least two partial streams (3, 5) or splitting the gas stream (1) into at least two partial streams (3, 5) and heating the partial streams (3, 5); (b) feeding each of the partial streams (3, 5) into a separate decomposition reactor, wherein each reactor (31) comprises a catalyst; (c) decomposing the nitrous oxide into nitrogen and oxygen in the decomposition reactors to obtain purified streams (13, 15); (d) optionally feeding each purified stream (13, 15) into a unit (11) for decomposing nitrogen dioxide and/or nitrogen monoxide or combining at least two purified streams (13, 15) and feeding the combined purified streams into a unit (11) for decomposing nitrogen dioxide and/or nitrogen monoxide, wherein the catalysts of the decomposition reactors (31) are changed alternatingly and wherein one of the catalysts is changed when the arithmetic mean of the lifetime of the catalysts in the other reactors has reached 25 to 75% of the lifetime of one catalyst.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.