The NOX were adsorbed into a char bed and then reduced by the microwav
es to nitrogen and carbon oxides. High removal rates of NOX-near 98%-w
ere observed in laboratory tests. A series of experiments were conduct
ed to find the effect that microwave-induced regeneration of NOX satur
ated char had on the NOX adsorption capacity of char and the resulting
adsorption rate. During the 9-cycle adsorption and reduction experime
nts, the adsorption capacity of char increased from 10 to 30 g NOX per
100 g char. The microwave-induced regeneration also significantly inc
reased the rate of NOX adsorption on char. As a result, the initial br
eakthrough time of NOX increased from 0.01 hour for the fresh char bed
to 14 hours for the char bed from the fourth microwave-induced regene
ration cycle when the average residence time of gas was 2.2 seconds. T
he surface area of the char was increased from 82 m(2)/g to 800 m(2)/g
after 9 cycles of adsorption and regeneration.