Abstract—The effect of Ni cation supported on FAU(Y) zeolite was prepared by aqueous solution ion exchange and incipient wetness impregnation methods in the selective catalytic reduction of nitric oxide using hydrogen as the reactant in packed bed reactor. 0.5 and 3.5 wt% of Ni (II) metals were loaded in the FAU(Y) zeolite. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and scanning electron microscope. The obtained Ni/FAU has enlarged pore size of octahedral shaped crystals with approximately 0.22 ± 0.085 μm diameter. Ni loading did not change the structure of FAU(Y) zeolite. Ni (II) loading with 3.5 wt% to FAU-Y zeolite by incipient wetness impregnation method was shown higher nitric oxide conversion than aqueous solution ion exchange method. I. INTRODUCTION Flue gases of many combustion processes are critical concerns of environmental pollutions with acid rains and smog. [1]. Nitric oxide (NO x ) is one of the most dangerous pollutants. At high concentrations nitric oxide is rapidly oxidized in air to form nitrogen dioxide, however, in fire gases, most of the nitric oxide remains unchanged. At high concentrations, it can affect in health and death. Excessive levels of nitric oxide in blood have been shown to cause low blood pressure. There are many researches to reduce nitric oxide. The catalytic reduction using metal-zeolites catalysts by hydrocarbons can be one method for reduction of NO x dangerous pollutants [2]. Mosqueda-Jimenez and his co-workers [3] reported that the activity of Ni/ZSM-5 is the most active catalyst for the NO reduction with propane reducing agent. However, using propane as reducing agent catalysts was rapidly deactivated due to the acid site catalyzed formation of carbonaceous deposition. The formation of carbonaceous deposition will block the active sites. It can change the catalyst structure and remove Al from framework positions. These are primary reasons for the changes in the catalysts activity during NO reduction with hydrocarbons [4], [5]. Zeolites are aluminosilicate structures and crystalline Manuscript received April 24, 2019; revised June 11, 2019. Patcharin Worathanakul is with the Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, 10800, Thailand. She is also with Center of Eco-material and Cleaner Technology, King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, 10800, Thailand (e-mail: patcharin.w@eng.kmutnb.ac.th). Nattachar Rakpasert was with the Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, 10800, Thailand. She is now with Thai Oil Group for Strategic Sourcing Coordinator position (e-mail: nattachar@thaioilgroup.com). microporous materials. They have been used in many industrial applications such as catalysis, molecular sieving, gas separation and ion exchange. Zeolite with microporous materials has some advantages with enrichment of reactants in zeolite pore, metal loadings and control of valence of the metals [6], [7]. The key parameters in zeolite diffusivity are sizes of intracrystalline channel. Many researchers have reported that zeolite diffusivity can be correlated with the critical diameter of guest molecule [8]. Metal loading into zeolite makes the intrinsic reaction rate faster; therefore diffusivity of intracrystalline would have more significant influence on the catalysts performance [7]. FAU (Y) zeolite has a size of 7.4 Å with faujasite family of zeolites that highly versatile molecular sieve including the three-dimensional pore structure and solid acidity. FAU (Y) is commonly prepared with aluminum and silicon content in low silicon and aluminum ratio. Transition metals such as Cu, Co, Fe, and Ni have been used a wide range in combination with different zeolite structures [3], [4] and [9]-[11]. They were found to be active catalysts for NO reduction. FAU zeolite can be also used for many applications such as pervaporation for dehydration, vapor permeation for organic separation, gas separation such as CO 2 /N 2 [12]-[14]. Wada and his co-workers [15] reported that the Pd-Ni-Y catalyst employed the highest activity toward the hydrocracking reaction of phenanthrene and pyrene. NO x reduction using H 2 as reducing agent is interesting. It is due to H 2 was very efficient in the catalytic conversion of NO into N 2 in the absence and in the presence of oxygen. Zero emissions of greenhouse gases are achieved and H 2 is evidenced in a wide temperature ranging and giving high cycle-average NO conversion [16], [17]. Moreover, the H 2 using as a reducing agent in selective catalytic reduction systems for NO x elimination in passenger cars may provide the advantage in terms of low temperature NO x reduction under lean conditions. The main interesting issue is to reduce NO x at very low temperatures without producing large amounts of N 2 O [18]. The aim of this paper was to compare the preparation methods of Ni (II) on FAU(Y) zeolite support by ion exchange and incipient wetness impregnation methods for NO reduction with packed bed reactor. II. MATERIALS AND METHODS A. Materials The material used for FAU-Y zeolite synthesis are as follow: Sodium hydroxide (NaOH 99 %wt., Merck), sodium Different Preparation Methods of Ni-FAU(Y) Zeolite for Nitric Oxide Reduction P. Worathanakul and N. Rakpasert International Journal of Chemical Engineering and Applications, Vol. 10, No. 4, August 2019 106 doi: 10.18178/ijcea.2019.10.4.750 Index Terms—FAU (Y) zeolite, metal loading, nickel, nitric oxide reduction.