Evaluation of mercury sorbents on a lab-scale multi-phase flow reactor and on a pilot-scale slipstream reactor

FUEL 9

Jiang Wu, jiangwku2004@yahoo.com, Yan Cao, yan.cao@wku.edu, Andy Wu, Songgeng Li, Hong Cui, Ping Lu, and Wei-Ping Pan, wei-ping.pan@wku.edu. Institute for Combustion Science and Environmental Technology, Western Kentucky University, 2413 Nashville Rd., Bowling Green, KY 42101
The mercury emitted from power stations burning coal has been generating more and more concern. Before sorbent injection is used in practice, its Hg capture ability needs to be evaluated. The ICSET at Western Kentucky University (WKU) conducted experiments on lab- and pilot-scale reactors it developed to evaluate mercury sorbents. A semi-continuous mercury monitor (SCMM) was adopted to measure change of mercury concentration in the flue gas. The effects of residence time, sorbent injection rate and temperature inside the reactor were studied. The results show the developed systems can work well to evaluate removal efficiency of sorbents. The mercury removal efficiencies of tested sorbents varied from 97% down to 23%. Sorbent A-01 has good removal efficiency ranging from 85% to 95% under different working conditions, while the efficiency of A-02 varied from 33% to 50%. The experiments demonstrate A-01, a non-carbon based sorbent, is very good mercury sorbent.