Sorbent Injection for Small ESP Mercury Control in Low Sulfur Eastern Bituminous Coal Flue Gas
This project Final Report is submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as part of Cooperative Agreement DE-FC26-03NT41987, 'Sorbent Injection for Small ESP Mercury Control in Low Sulfur Eastern Bituminous Coal Flue Gas.' Sorbent injection technology is targeted as the primary mercury control process on plants burning low/medium sulfur bituminous coals equipped with ESP and ESP/FGD systems. About 70% of the ESPs used in the utility industry have SCAs less than 300 ft2/1000 acfm. Prior to this test program, previous sorbent injection tests had focused on large-SCA ESPs. This DOE-NETL program was designed to generate data to evaluate the performance and economic feasibility of sorbent injection for mercury control at power plants that fire bituminous coal and are configured with small-sized electrostatic precipitators and/or an ESP-flue gas desulfurization (FGD) configuration. EPRI and Southern Company were co-funders for the test program. Southern Company and Reliant Energy provided host sites for testing and technical input to the project. URS Group was the prime contractor to NETL. ADA-ES and Apogee Scientific Inc. were sub-contractors to URS and was responsible for all aspects of the sorbent injection systems design, installation and operation at the different host sites. Full-scale sorbent injection for mercury control was evaluated at three sites: Georgia Power's Plant Yates Units 1 and 2 [Georgia Power is a subsidiary of the Southern Company] and Reliant Energy's Shawville Unit 3. Georgia Power's Plant Yates Unit 1 has an existing small-SCA cold-side ESP followed by a Chiyoda CT-121 wet scrubber. Yates Unit 2 is also equipped with a small-SCA ESP and a dual flue gas conditioning system. Unit 2 has no SO2 control system. Shawville Unit 3 is equipped with two small-SCA cold-side ESPs operated in series. All ESP systems tested in this program had SCAs less than 250 ft2/1000 acfm. Short-term parametric tests were conducted on Yates Units 1 and 2 to evaluate the performance of low-cost activated carbon sorbents for removing mercury. In addition, the effects of the dual flue gas conditioning system on mercury removal performance were evaluated as part of short-term parametric tests on Unit 2. Based on the parametric test results, a single sorbent (e.g., RWE Super HOK) was selected for a 30-day continuous injection test on Unit 1 to observe long-term performance of the sorbent as well as its effects on ESP and FGD system operations as well as combustion byproduct properties. A series of parametric tests were also performed on Shawville Unit 3 over a three-week period in which several activated carbon sorbents were injected into the flue gas duct just upstream of either of the two Unit 3 ESP units. Three different sorbents were evaluated in the parametric test program for the combined ESP 1/ESP 2 system in which sorbents were injected upstream of ESP 1: RWE Super HOK, Norit's DARCO Hg, and a 62:38 wt% hydrated lime/DARCO Hg premixed reagent. Five different sorbents were evaluated for the ESP 2 system in which activated carbons were injected upstream of ESP 2: RWE Super HOK and coarse-ground HOK, Norit's DARCO Hg and DARCO Hg-LH, and DARCO Hg with lime injection upstream of ESP 1. The hydrated lime tests were conducted to reduce SO3 levels in an attempt to enhance the mercury removal performance of the activated carbon sorbents. The Plant Yates and Shawville studies provided data required for assessing carbon performance and long-term operational impacts for flue gas mercury control across small-sized ESPs, as well as for estimating the costs of full-scale sorbent injection processes.
- Research Organization:
- Urs Group Incorporated
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FC26-03NT41987
- OSTI ID:
- 920193
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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