Imapct of fly ash compostion and flue gas components on mercury speciation

FUEL 82

Xihua Chen, xhchenexp@gmail.com1, Ravi Bhardwaj, rab56@pitt.edu1, Jason Monnell, jmonnell@pitt.edu1, Joseph RV. Flora2, Eric Borguet3, and Radisav Vidic, vidic@engr.pitt.edu1. (1) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, (2) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of South Carolina, 300 Main Street, Columbia, SC 29208, (3) Department of Chemistry, Temple University, 130 Beury Hall, 1901 North 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122
The impacts of fly ash composition and flue gas components on mercury speciation were evaluated in a fixed bed reactor system at 140 ºC. Fly ash samples were characterized using SEM-EDAX, XPS, BET analyzer and particle size analyzer. Pure compounds were chosen for tests to identify the impact of key fly ash components on mercury speciation. Carbon black was used to simulate unburned carbon in fly ash. Mercury uptake tests revealed that LOI, surface area, and particle size of fly ash samples all had positive effects on mercury oxidation and adsorption, and unburned carbon was the most important fly ash component influencing mercury speciation. The importance of the interaction between flue gas and carbon surface on mercury uptake was also revealed in experiments with different flue gas composition. NO2 and HCl promoted mercury oxidation and adsorption on carbon black, while SO2 seemed to inhibit both mercury oxidation and adsorption.
 

Mercury and Other Trace Elements in Fuel: Emissions and Control
8:30 AM-11:45 AM, Monday, April 7, 2008 Morial Convention Center -- Rm. 238, Oral

Division of Fuel Chemistry

The 235th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 6-10, 2008