In order to study the mechanism of selective catalytic reduction of activated coke to remove NO in low-temperature flue gas and provide some theoretical basis for the development of related technologies. The pore size distribution and BET specific surface area of AC were obtain by data analyzing of N2 adsorption/desorption isotherm at − 196 °C and carbon matrix and surface chemistry of virgin activated coke samples were characterized by acid–base titration and XPS. The process of selective catalytic reduction of activated coke (AC) samples with NH3 as reducing agent was studied in a fixed bed reactor at 150 °C. The result shows that pore size distribution or BET specific surface of activated cokes have not correlation with denitrification activity for SCR. The NO reduction activities of the activated cokes are apparent to increase with their surface oxygen element content and total amount of acidic sites. Obviously there is good linear relationship between the NH3 adsorption capacity and activity for SCR with linear correlation coefficient 0.943. It has been presented that adsorption of NH3 on acidic functional groups in the edge of large polycyclic aromatic ring of activated coke is key rate controlling step in the SCR heterogeneous catalytic reaction.
