Investigation of a mercury speciation technique for flue gas desulfurization materials

Journal Article · Sat Aug 15 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3155/1047-3289.59.8.972· OSTI ID:21233573

Lee, J Y; Cho, K; Cheng, L; Keener, T C; Jegadeesan, G; Al-Abed, S R ^[1]

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1. University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH (United States). Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering

Most of the synthetic gypsum generated from wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) scrubbers is currently being used for wallboard production. Because oxidized mercury is readily captured by the wet FGD scrubber, and coal-fired power plants equipped with wet scrubbers desire to benefit from the partial mercury control that these systems provide, some mercury is likely to be bound in with the FGD gypsum and wallboard. In this study, the feasibility of identifying mercury species in the FGD gypsum and wallboard samples was investigated using a large sample size thermal desorption method and samples from power plants in Pennsylvania. Potential candidates of pure mercury standards including mercuric chloride, mercurous chloride, mercury oxide, mercury sulfide, and mercuric sulfate were analyzed to compare their results with those obtained from FGD gypsum and dry wallboard samples. Although any of the thermal evolutionary curves obtained from these pure mercury standards did not exactly match with those of the FGD gypsum and wallboard samples, it was identified that Hg{sub 2}Cl{sub 2} and HgCl{sub 2} could be candidates. An additional chlorine analysis from the gypsum and wallboard samples indicated that the chlorine concentrations were approximately 2 orders of magnitude higher than the mercury concentrations, suggesting possible chlorine association with mercury. 21 refs., 5 figs., 3 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 21233573
• Journal Information: Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association, Journal Name: Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 59; ISSN JAWAEB; ISSN 1047-3289
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
BUILDING MATERIALS
CHLORINE
COAL
DESULFURIZATION
EMISSION
FLUE GAS
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
GYPSUM
HYDROGEN PEROXIDE
ICP MASS SPECTROSCOPY
MERCURY
MERCURY COMPOUNDS
MERCURY OXIDES
METALS
NITRIC ACID
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
TIN CHLORIDES
USA