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The Relative Influence of Turbulence and Turbulent Mixing on the Adsorption of Mercury within a Gas-Sorbent Suspension
Citation:
CLACK, H. L., U. NARASIMHAN, AND S. D. SERRE. The Relative Influence of Turbulence and Turbulent Mixing on the Adsorption of Mercury within a Gas-Sorbent Suspension . , na, (2003).
Impact/Purpose:
to publish information
Description:
Our previous investigations demonstrated that entrained flow or in-flight adsorption can be a more effective and flexible approach to trace gas adsorption than fixed sorbent beds. The present investigation establishes the turbulent mixing that accompanies sorbent injection is an important mechanism for effective in-flight trace gas adsorption. A powdered sorbent forms a suspension once injected into a fixed volume of gas containing 44 ppb of elemental mercury (Hgo). Randomly moving Teflon spheres within the volume will generate turbulence within the suspension. After agitation, residual mercury concentrations were determined by analyzing an extracted, filtered gas sample. Comparing in flight mercury adsorption against the mercury captured on the filter, in-flight adsorption routinely accounted for 80% or more of the total mercury removed. In addition, the turbulent mixing accompanying sorbent injection, not the isotropic turbulence of agitation, accounted for almost all mercury removed in-flight for short residence times. The discussion also includes an analysis of a generic full-scale sorbent injection process, and how current injection methods might be improved. The results of this investigation suggest that optimization of the sorbent injection process is more important to effective in-flight adsorption than longer residence times or free stream turbulence