Popis: |
In this project, General Electric Energy and Environmental Research Corporation (EER) developed a novel mercury (Hg) control technology in which the sorbent for gas-phase Hg removal is produced from coal in a gasification process in-situ at a coal burning plant. The main objective of this project was to obtain technical information necessary for moving the technology from pilot-scale testing to a full-scale demonstration. A pilot-scale gasifier was used to generate sorbents from both bituminous and subbituminous coals. Once the conditions for optimizing sorbent surface area were identified, sorbents with the highest surface area were tested in a pilot-scale combustion tunnel for their effectiveness in removing Hg from coal-based flue gas. It was determined that the highest surface area sorbents generated from the gasifier process ({approx}600 m{sup 2}/g) had about 70%-85% of the reactivity of activated carbon at the same injection rate (lb/ACF), but were effective in removing 70% mercury at injection rates about 50% higher than that of commercially available activated carbon. In addition, mercury removal rates of up to 95% were demonstrated at higher sorbent injection rates. Overall, the results of the pilot-scale tests achieved the program goals, which were to achieve at least 70% Hg removal from baseline emissions levels at 25% or less of the cost of activated carbon injection. |