Effect of NOx control processes on mercury speciation in utility flue gas

The speciation of Hg in coal-fired flue gas can be important in determining the ultimate Hg emissions as well as potential control options for the utility. The effects of NOx control processes, such as selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR), on Hg speciation are not well understood but may impact emissions of Hg. EPRI has investigated the reactions of Hg in flue gas at conditions expected for some NOx control processes. This paper describes the methodology used to investigate these reactions in actual flue gas at several power plants. Results have indicated that some commercial SCR catalysts are capable of oxidizing elemental Hg in flue gas obtained from the inlets of SCR or air heater units. Results are affected by various flue gas and operating parameters. The effect of flue gas composition, including the presence of NH3, has been evaluated. The influence of NH3 on fly ash Hg reactions also is being investigated.     

The application of regenerable sorbents for mercury capture in gas phase

Mercury is a well-known toxic element, and flue gas streams emitted from coal-fired utilities are one of the largest anthropogenic sources of this element. This study briefly reviews the proposed technologies for reducing mercury emissions from coal combustion, focusing on an emerging process which involves the use of regenerable sorbents and especially those loaded with noble metals. Among the mercury species formed during coal combustion, elemental mercury is the most difficult to remove from the flue gases due to its low reactivity and insolubility in water. The widespread interest in using regenerable sorbents with metals is due to their ability to retain elemental mercury. With this technology, not only can efficiencies of 100 % be reached in the retention of elemental mercury but also a way to avoid the generation of new wastes loaded with mercury. This study considers the main aspects that must be taken into account when developing effective regenerable sorbents for mercury capture, with special attention to sorbents containing noble metals. The characteristics of this process are compared with those of other processes in a more advanced state of development.     

钙基烟气脱硫剂制备的实验研究

采用正交实验 ,研究了水合制备高效钙基烟气脱硫剂时各制备条件对产物的影响。结果表明 ,水合时间、水合温度Ca(OH) 2 /CaSO4的质量比 ,以及飞灰 / (Ca(OH) 2 +CaSO4)质量比四个条件对脱硫剂比表面积的形成有显著的影响 ;从而由单因素实验得出一最佳钙基脱硫剂制备条件组合。此外 ,通过XDR分析 ,测定了脱硫剂的物相组成 ,扫描电镜观察显示飞灰和水合吸收剂具有不同的表面形态     

Optimizing the specific surface area of fly ash-based sorbents for flue gas desulfurization

High performance sorbents for flue gas desulfurization can be synthesized by hydration of coal fly ash, calcium sulfate, and calcium oxide. In general, higher desulfurization activity correlates with higher sorbent surface area. Consequently, a major aim in sorbent synthesis is to maximize the sorbent surface area by optimizing the hydration conditions. This work presents an integrated modeling and optimization approach to sorbent synthesis based on statistical experimental design and two artificial intelligence techniques: neural network and genetic algorithm. In the first step of the approach, the main and interactive effects of three hydration variables on sorbent surface area were evaluated using a full factorial design. The hydration variables of interest to this study were hydration time, amount of coal fly ash, and amount of calcium sulfate and the levels investigated were 4-32 h, 5-15 g, and 0-12 g, respectively. In the second step, a neural network was used to model the relationship between the three hydration variables and the sorbent surface area. A genetic algorithm was used in the last step to optimize the input space of the resulting neural network model. According to this integrated modeling and optimization approach, an optimum sorbent surface area of 62.2m(2)g(-1) could be obtained by mixing 13.1g of coal fly ash and 5.5 g of calcium sulfate in a hydration process containing 100ml of water and 5 g of calcium oxide for a fixed hydration time of 10 h.     

Control of mercury vapor emissions from combustion flue gas

GOAL, SCOPE AND BACKGROUND: Mercury (Hg) emission from combustion flue gas is a significant environmental concern due to its toxicity and high volatility. A number of the research efforts have been carried out in the past decade exploiting mercury emission, monitoring and control from combustion flue gases. Most recently, increasing activities are focused on evaluating the behavior of mercury in coal combustion systems and developing novel Hg control technologies. This is partly due to the new regulatory requirement on mercury emissions from coal-fired combustors to be enacted under the U.S. Title III of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The aim of this review work is to better understand the state-of-the-art technologies of flue gas mercury control and identify the gaps of knowledge hence areas for further opportunities in research and development. MAIN FEATURES: This paper examines mercury behaviors in combustion systems through a comprehensive review of the available literature. About 70 published papers and reports were cited and studied. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: This paper summarizes the mechanisms of formation of mercury containing compounds during combustion, its speciation and reaction in flue gas, as well as subsequent mobilization in the environment. It also provides a review of the current techniques designed for real-time, continuous emission monitoring (CEM) for mercury. Most importantly, current flue gas mercury control technologies are reviewed while activated carbon adsorption, a technology that offers the greatest potential for the control of gas-phase mercury emissions, is highlighted. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Although much progress has been achieved in the last decade, techniques developed for the monitoring and control of mercury from combustion flue gases are not yet mature and gaps in knowledge exist for further advancement. More R&D efforts are required for the effective control of Hg emissions and the main focuses are identified.     

Gas-phase mercury reduction to measure total mercury in the flue gas of a coal-fired boiler

Gaseous elemental and total (elemental + oxidized) mercury (Hg) in the flue gas from a coal-fired boiler was measured by a modified ultraviolet (UV) spectrometer. Challenges to Hg measurement were the spectral interferences from other flue gas components and that UV measures only elemental Hg. To eliminate interference from flue gas components, a cartridge filled with gold-coated sand removed elemental Hg from a flue gas sample. The Hg-free flue gas was the reference gas, eliminating the spectral interferences. To measure total Hg by UV, oxidized Hg underwent a gas-phase, thermal-reduction in a quartz cell heated to 750 degrees C. Simultaneously, hydrogen was added to flash react with the oxygen present forming water vapor and preventing Hg re-oxidation as it exits the cell. Hg concentration results are in parts per billion by volume Hg at the flue gas oxygen concentration. The modified Hg analyzer and the Ontario Hydro method concurrently measured Hg at a field test site. Measurements were made at a 700-MW steam turbine plant with scrubber units and selective catalytic reduction. The flue gas sampled downstream of the selective catalytic reduction contained 2100 ppm SO2 and 75 ppm NOx. Total Hg measured by the Hg analyzer was within 20% of the Ontario Hydro results.     

凹土负载催化剂对模拟烟气中单质汞的吸附

采用浸渍法制备一系列Mo掺杂MnOx/凹土催化剂(Mo-Mn-ATP),并经负载Mo/MnOx后冻干-焙烧变温致孔处理。采用比表面、孔径分析仪测定催化剂的比表面积、N2吸附-脱附等温线分析和孔径分布;X射线能谱分析仪(EDS)对催化剂成分进行分析。在固定床汞吸附实验台上,进行了凹土负载催化剂脱除模拟烟气中Hg0的实验研究和理论分析。结果表明,制得的Mo/Mn摩尔比1:3的Mo-Mn-ATP催化剂,在保持凹土原有晶体结构的基础上,随着Mo/MnOx负载量的增加,材料的比表面积和孔容减小。10%负载量,反应温度120℃的条件下,含Mo催化剂对Hg0的脱除性能最佳。     

In-situ mercury speciation in flue gas by liquid and solid sorption systems

The optimization of the various flue gas purification techniques presently applied on processes of municipal solid waste incineration with a view to reducing the mercury emissions decisively depends on information about the mercury species occurring at the boiler outlet. Different methods were developed to distinguish between the various forms of mercury released to the atmosphere. It has been shown that mercury halogenides are predominant whereas metallic mercury is present in insignificant amounts only.     

选择性催化还原催化剂氧化脱除烟气中单质汞

以运用超声辅助浸渍法制备的V2O5-WO3/TiO2系列催化剂样品作为研究参考,在150 ～ 400℃,分别考察了某燃煤电厂新鲜的及已运行长达26 000 h的商用SCR脱硝催化剂对模拟烟气中单质汞(Hg0)的氧化性能,并利用SEM、BET、XRD等手段对样品的理化性质进行了表征.结果表明,电厂商用SCR催化剂对于燃煤烟气中的Hg0具有一定的催化氧化作用,但在250℃最佳反应温度时,最大汞氧化效率在50％以下,相同实验条件下,自制的1％V205-9％ WO3/TiO2(V1W9Ti)能够获得68.18％的最大汞氧化效率;通过考察NO、NH3、SO2和水蒸气对汞的氧化的影响发现,在低浓度NO以及5％02存在时,NO能够促进汞的氧化;SO2对汞的氧化有明显的抑制作用,而且其毒害作用具有一定的不可逆性;NH3在催化剂表面能够与Hg0发生竞争吸附,从而抑制了汞的氧化;水蒸气的存在容易导致催化剂的失活.此外,对催化剂氧化Hg0的机理进行了探讨.     

非平衡等离子体诱导催化剂吸附单质汞

采用非平衡等离子体诱导γ-Al2O3催化剂吸附单质汞,分析了等离子体与催化剂之间的相互作用。结果表明,在放电区域填充催化剂和在气流中加入单质汞均可降低放电的起始放电电压,这是因为放电区域填充催化剂使气体空间放电转变成表面的微放电。催化剂表面可以被等离子放电直接活化,使本身不能吸附单质汞的催化剂产生很强的吸附单质汞的能力。在放电能量密度约为19 J·L-1时,等离子体诱导催化剂吸附单质汞的效率可达94.1%。O2对等离子体诱导催化剂吸附Hg0有促进作用,随着O2浓度的提高,吸附效率随之提高。当气流中含有5% O2时,单质汞的吸附效率可达到98.5%,这是因为气流中存在O2时,经放电生成的等离子体中含有活性氧物种O3和O等,这些活性物质因具有氧化单质汞的能力而增强了单质汞的吸附。此外,催化剂表面O3的分解过程也是强化单质汞的吸附的原因。     

A predictive mechanism for mercury oxidation on selective catalytic reduction catalysts under coal-derived flue gas

This paper introduces a predictive mechanism for elemental mercury (Hg(o)) oxidation on selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalysts in coal-fired utility gas cleaning systems, given the ammonia (NH3)/nitric oxide (NO) ratio and concentrations of Hg(o) and HCl at the monolith inlet, the monolith pitch and channel shape, and the SCR temperature and space velocity. A simple premise connects the established mechanism for catalytic NO reduction to the Hg(o) oxidation behavior on SCRs: that hydrochloric acid (HCl) competes for surface sites with NH3 and that Hg(o) contacts these chlorinated sites either from the gas phase or as a weakly adsorbed species. This mechanism explicitly accounts for the inhibition of Hg(o) oxidation by NH3, so that the monolith sustains two chemically distinct regions. In the inlet region, strong NH3 adsorption minimizes the coverage of chlorinated surface sites, so NO reduction inhibits Hg(o) oxidation. But once NH3 has been consumed, the Hg(o) oxidation rate rapidly accelerates, even while the HCl concentration in the gas phase is uniform. Factors that shorten the length of the NO reduction region, such as smaller channel pitches and converting from square to circular channels, and factors that enhance surface chlorination, such as higher inlet HCl concentrations and lower NH3/NO ratios, promote Hg(o) oxidation. This mechanism accurately interprets the reported tendencies for greater extents of Hg(o) oxidation on honeycomb monoliths with smaller channel pitches and hotter temperatures and the tendency for lower extents of Hg(o) oxidation for hotter temperatures on plate monoliths. The mechanism also depicts the inhibition of Hg(o) oxidation by NH3 for NH3/NO ratios from zero to 0.9. Perhaps most important for practical applications, the mechanism reproduces the reported extents of Hg(o) oxidation on a single catalyst for four coals that generated HCl concentrations from 8 to 241 ppm, which covers the entire range encountered in the U.S. utility industry. Similar performance is also demonstrated for full-scale SCRs with diverse coal types and operating conditions.     

A sulfur-resistant CuS-modified active coke for mercury removal from municipal solid waste incineration flue gas

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Adsorption is a typical method for air pollutant removal from flue gas. A CuS-modified active coke (CuS/AC) sorbent was developed to improve the...     

高锰酸钾氧化吸收烟气中单质汞的研究

在鼓泡反应器中考察了高锰酸钾氧化单质汞(Hg0)的影响因素和机理,研究结果表明,KMnO4和Hg0的反应很快,去除率随KMnO4增加而增加;汞的进口浓度对汞的去除率影响不大;随pH值的升高汞的去除率先降低后增加,在强酸性(pH=0)下Hg0去除率最大,为92.4％,当pH值超过11随pH值的升高而增加。在不同酸碱体系中...     

一种新型烟气脱硫技术在燃煤锅炉上的扩大试验

介绍了用硫化碱加TFS添加剂进行燃煤锅炉煤气脱硫并副产硫代硫酸钠的中试成果。     

Adsorption of mercury by activated carbon prepared from dried sewage sludge in simulated flue gas

Conversion of sewage sludge to activated carbon is attractive as an alternative method to ocean dumping for the disposal of sewage sludge. Injection of activated carbon upstream of particulate matter control devices has been suggested as a method to remove elemental mercury from flue gas. Activated carbon was prepared using various activation temperatures and times and was tested for their mercury adsorption efficiency using lab-scale systems. To understand the effect of the physical property of the activated carbon, its mercury adsorption efficiency was investigated as a function of its Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area. Two simulated flue gas conditions, (1) without hydrogen chloride (HCl) and (2) with 20 ppm HCl, were used to investigate the effect of flue gas composition on the mercury adsorption capacity of activated carbon. Despite very low BET surface area of the prepared sewage sludge activated carbons, their mercury adsorption efficiencies were comparable under both simulated flue gas conditions to those of pinewood and coal activated carbons. After injecting HCl into the simulated flue gas, all sewage sludge activated carbons demonstrated high adsorption efficiencies, that is, more than 87%, regardless of their BET surface area.

Implications: We tested activated carbons prepared from dried sewage sludge to investigate the effect of their physical properties on their mercury adsorption efficiency. Using two simulated flue gas conditions, we conducted mercury speciation for the outlet gas. We found that the sewage sludge activated carbon had mercury adsorption efficiency comparable to pinewood and coal activated carbons, and the presence of HCl minimized the effect of physical property of the activated carbon on its mercury adsorption efficiency.     

CuO-CeO2/AC吸附燃煤烟气中元素汞的实验研究

通过活性炭负载CuO和CeO2来制备吸附剂,采用固定床吸附方式,在不同反应条件下对吸附剂的吸附性能进行测试,筛选出去除效率最好的吸附剂,并通过BET和XRD对吸附剂的理化性质进行分析。结果表明,CuO和CeO2的加入大大改变了原活性炭的比表面积和孔结构,改善了活性炭的吸附性能。CuO-CeO2/AC中CuO和CeO2质量比不同,对汞的去除效率也不同,在1∶2时去除效率最好;CuO-CeO2/AC中所负载的CuO和CeO的总量为5%时,能大大促进汞的吸附效率,增长有效吸附时间;CuO-CeO2/AC对汞的吸附性能随反应温度的增加呈先增加后减小的趋势,在80℃时达到最大值。     

Gas-phase elemental mercury removal in a simulated combustion flue gas using TiO2 with fluorescent light

A previously proposed technology incorporating TiO₂ into common household fluorescent lighting was further tested for its Hg⁰ removal capability in a simulated flue-gas system. The flue gas is simulated by the addition of O₂, SO₂, HCl, NO, H₂O, and Hg⁰, which are frequently found in combustion facilities such as waste incinerators and coal-fired power plants. In the O₂ + N₂ + Hg⁰ environment, a Hg⁰ removal efficiency (η_Hg) greater than 95% was achieved. Despite the tendency for η_Hg to decrease with increasing SO₂ and HCl, no significant drop was observed at the tested level (SO₂: 5–300 ppm_v, HCl: 30–120 ppm_v). In terms of NO and moisture, a significant negative effect on η_Hg was observed for both factors. NO eliminated the OH radical on the TiO₂ surface, whereas water vapor caused either the occupation of active sites available to Hg⁰ or the reduction of Hg₀ by free electron. However, the negative effect of NO was minimized (η_Hg > 90%) by increasing the residence time in the photochemical reactor. The moisture effect can be avoided by installing a water trap before the flue gas enters the Hg⁰ removal system.

Implications: This paper reports a novel technology for a removal of gas-phase elemental mercury (Hg⁰) from a simulated flue gas using TiO₂-coated glass beads under a low-cost, easily maintainable household fluorescent light instead of ultraviolet (UV) light. In this study, the effects of individual chemical species (O₂, SO₂, HCl, NO, and water vapor) on the performance of the proposed technology for Hg⁰ removal are investigated. The result suggests that the proposed technology can be highly effective, even in real combustion environments such as waste incinerators and coal-fired power plants.     

湿法烟气脱硫工艺中烟气再热方式的选择

分析了湿法烟气脱硫烟气再热原因,介绍了多种烟气再热方法,并对其进行了技术分析,为湿法烟气脱硫工程的烟气再热系统设计提供了依据。     

The impact of wet flue gas desulfurization scrubbing on mercury emissions from coal-fired power stations

This article introduces a predictive capability for Hg retention in any Ca-based wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) scrubber, given mercury (Hg) speciation at the FGD inlet, the flue gas composition, and the sulphur dioxide (SO2) capture efficiency. A preliminary statistical analysis of data from 17 full-scale wet FGDs connects flue gas compositions, the extents of Hg oxidation at FGD inlets, and Hg retention efficiencies. These connections clearly signal that solution chemistry within the FGD determines Hg retention. A more thorough analysis based on thermochemical equilibrium yields highly accurate predictions for total Hg retention with no parameter adjustments. For the most reliable data, the predictions were within measurement uncertainties for both limestone and Mg/lime systems operating in both forced and natural oxidation mode. With the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Information Collection Request (ICR) database, the quantitative performance was almost as good for the most modern FGDs, which probably conform to the very high SO2 absorption efficiencies assumed in the calculations. The large discrepancies for older FGDs are tentatively attributed to the unspecified SO2 capture efficiencies and operating temperatures and to the possible elimination of HCl in prescrubbers. The equilibrium calculations suggest that Hg retention is most sensitive to inlet HCl and O2 levels and the FGD temperature; weakly dependent on SO2 capture efficiency; and insensitive to HgCl2, NO, CA:S ratio, slurry dilution level in limestone FGDs, and MgSO3 levels in Mg/lime systems. Consequently, systems with prescrubbers to eliminate HCl probably retain less Hg than fully integrated FGDs. The analysis also predicts re-emission of Hg(O) but only for inlet O2 levels that are much lower than those in full-scale FGDs.