Factors affecting mercury control in utility flue gas using sorbent injection

Conference · Wed Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:351114

Carey, T R; Hargrove, Jr, O W; Richardson, C F ^[1]; Chang, R ^[2]; Meserole, F B ^[3]

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1. Radian International LLC, Austin, TX (United States)
2. Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
3. Meserole Consulting, Austin, TX (United States)

Mercury continues to be considered for possible regulation in the electric power industry under Title 3 of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. This possibility has generated interest in assessing whether cost-effective technologies exist for removing mercury from fossil-fired flue gas. One promising approach involves the direct injection of mercury sorbents, such as activated carbon, into the flue gas. Although this method has been effective at removing mercury in municipal waste incinerators, tests conducted to date on utility fossil-fired boilers show that mercury removal is much more difficult in utility flue gas. EPRI is conducting research to investigate mercury removal using sorbents. Bench-scale and pilot-scale tests have been conducted to determine the ability of different sorbents to remove mercury in simulated and actual flue gas streams. Bench-scale tests have investigated the effect of various sorbent and flue gas parameters on sorbent performance. These data are being used to develop a theoretical model for predicting mercury removal by sorbents at different conditions. The possibility of regenerating and recycling sorbents is also being evaluated. This paper describes the results of parametric bench-scale and pilot-scale tests investigating the removal of mercuric chloride and elemental mercury by activated carbon. Results obtained to date indicate that the adsorption capacity of a given sorbent is dependent on many factors, including the type of mercury being adsorbed, flue gas composition, and adsorption temperature. These data provide insight into potential mercury adsorption mechanisms and suggest that the removal of mercury involves both physical and chemical mechanisms. Understanding these effects is important since the performance of a given sorbent could vary significantly from site-to-site depending on coal- or gas-matrix composition.

• OSTI ID: 351114
• Report Number(s): CONF-970677--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
ACTIVATED CARBON
AIR POLLUTION ABATEMENT
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
FLUE GAS
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
MERCURY
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PILOT PLANTS
RECYCLING
WASTE MANAGEMENT