Evaluation of carbon-based substrates for the production of economical mercury sorbents
- Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States). Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Dept. of Energy, Pittsburgh, PA (United States). Federal Energy Technology Center
Based on the success of previous studies, optimization of the sulfur impregnation protocol for activated carbon-based adsorbents designed for the control of mercury emissions was performed based on the sulfur to carbon ratio (SCR) during the impregnation procedure. Bituminous coal-based activated carbon (BPL), regenerated activated carbon (React-A) and Upper Freeport (UFP) coal were used to study the effect of carbon-based substrates on the production of sorbents for mercury control. Furthermore, the effect of oxygen in the carrier gas on mercury uptake was also evaluated for sulfur impregnated activated carbon (BPL-S). The impact of SCR ranging from 4:1 to 1:2 was investigated for the BPL activated carbon when the impregnation temperature was fixed at 600 C. The mercury uptake capacity for the BPL-S series did not decrease significantly when the SCR changed from 4:1 to 2:1. However, a significant loss in capacity was observed when the SCR was decreased from 2:1 to 1:2. Both virgin coal (UFP) and sulfur-impregnated coal (UFP-4/1-600) samples had extremely low mercury uptake capacity due to very low surface area and, consequently, low sulfur content of the impregnated sorbent. On the other hand, sulfur impregnated regenerated activated carbon (React-A-4/1-600) showed much higher mercury uptake capacity (1900 m g Hg/g carbon) that is comparable to those of BPL-S series. Before analyzing the effect of oxygen on the performance of BPL-S-4/1-600, the possibility of homogeneous reaction between oxygen and mercury was evaluated. Experimental results showed that no HgO formation occurred in the absence of a catalytic surface. A small increase in mercury uptake capacity of BPL-S-4/1-600 was observed when 3% oxygen was introduced in the carrier gas. As the oxygen concentration increased from 6% to 9%, even higher mercury uptake capacity was observed.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG22-96PC96212
- OSTI ID:
- 679332
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980632-; TRN: IM9940%%152
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 91. annual meeting and exhibition of the Air and Waste Management Association, San Diego, CA (United States), 14-18 Jun 1998; Other Information: PBD: 1998; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the 91. annual meeting and exhibition. Bridging international boundaries: Clean production for environmental stewardship; PB: [5000] p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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