Mercury Control with Calcium-Based Sorbents and Oxidizing Agents
This Final Report contains the test descriptions, results, analysis, correlations, theoretical descriptions, and model derivations produced from many different investigations performed on a project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, to investigate calcium-based sorbents and injection of oxidizing agents for the removal of mercury. Among the technologies were (a) calcium-based sorbents in general, (b) oxidant-additive sorbents developed originally at the EPA, and (c) optimized calcium/carbon synergism for mercury-removal enhancement. In addition, (d) sodium-tetrasulfide injection was found to effectively capture both forms of mercury across baghouses and ESPs, and has since been demonstrated at a slipstream treating PRB coal. It has been shown that sodium-tetrasulfide had little impact on the foam index of PRB flyash, which may indicate that sodium-tetrasulfide injection could be used at power plants without affecting flyash sales. Another technology, (e) coal blending, was shown to be an effective means of increasing mercury removal, by optimizing the concentration of calcium and carbon in the flyash. In addition to the investigation and validation of multiple mercury-control technologies (a through e above), important fundamental mechanism governing mercury kinetics in flue gas were elucidated. For example, it was shown, for the range of chlorine and unburned-carbon (UBC) concentrations in coal-fired utilities, that chlorine has much less effect on mercury oxidation and removal than UBC in the flyash. Unburned carbon enhances mercury oxidation in the flue gas by reacting with HCl to form chlorinated-carbon sites, which then react with elemental mercury to form mercuric chloride, which subsequently desorbs back into the flue gas. Calcium was found to enhance mercury removal by stabilizing the oxidized mercury formed on carbon surfaces. Finally, a model was developed to describe these mercury adsorption, desorption, oxidation, and removal mechanisms, including the synergistic enhancement of mercury removal by calcium.
- Research Organization:
- Southern Research Institute
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC26-01NT41183
- OSTI ID:
- 887485
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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