Elemental mercury removal using a wet scrubber
- Purdue Univ. Calumet, Hammond, IN (United States). Dept. of Engineering
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
Mercury (Hg) is a toxic metal that is emitted into the environment by both natural and human activities. Acute and chronic exposure to mercury and methyl mercury in humans results in central nervous system damage, kidney damage, and even death. Although some Hg emission sources have been regulated, coal-fired utilities have not been. In anticipation of federal regulations on mercury emissions from coal fired power plants, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has designed a flue gas simulation system to study the removal of elemental mercury. The simulated flue gas enters the system and combines with the inlet mercury vapor (from a calibrated permeation tube), carried by nitrogen gas. This combined gas continues past the flow meter and the pressure gage to the reactor inlet. Inside the reactor chamber, the flue gas is sprayed with NOXSORB{reg_sign} a chloric acid solution, which reacts with elemental mercury. The amount of reaction (oxidation) of elemental mercury is important since mercury in an oxidized form is highly soluble. In this form the Hg can be picked up downstream by a wet scrubber. Experiments on mercury removal from flue gases have been conducted at ANL, with the participation of a senior design team from Purdue University Calumet. A literature survey on the current and proposed mercury control legislation, along with the existing control technologies has been performed as part of the senior design project. The experimental results obtained at Argonne will be related to existing wet scrubber technology to determine the economic feasibility of mercury removal. A cost per pound of mercury analysis will be utilized.
- Research Organization:
- Illinois Inst. of Tech., Chicago, IL (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 696699
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-990410-PROC.-Vol.1; TRN: IM9946%%85
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 61. American power conference annual meeting, Chicago, IL (United States), 6-8 Apr 1999; Other Information: PBD: 1999; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the American power conference: Volume 61-1; McBride, A.E. [ed.]; PB: 540 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Process for combined control of mercury and nitric oxide.
Reactions of gaseous, elemental mercury with dilute halogen solutions