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EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF CHLORINE ON MERCURY OXIDATION IN A PILOT-SCALE COAL COMBUSTION--THE EFFECT OF COAL BLENDING
Citation:
SERRE, S. D., C. W. LEE, P. Chau, AND T. W. Hastings. EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF CHLORINE ON MERCURY OXIDATION IN A PILOT-SCALE COAL COMBUSTION--THE EFFECT OF COAL BLENDING. Presented at Mega Symposium Proceedings, Baltimore, MD, August 25 - 28, 2008.
Impact/Purpose:
Symposium paper
Description:
Coal-fired power plants are a major source of mercury (Hg) released into the environment and the utility industry is currently investigating options to reduce Hg emissions. The EPA Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR) depends heavily on the co-benefit of mercury removal by existing and new wet FGD scrubbers. The split (speciation) between chemical forms of mercury species has a strong influence on the control of Hg emissions from coal combustion. The high-temperature coal combustion process releases Hg in elemental form (Hg0). A significant fraction of the Hg0 can be subsequently oxidized in the low-temperature, post-combustion environment of a coal-fired boiler. Oxidized Hg (Hg2+) is more effectively removed by air pollution control systems. For example, the water-soluble Hg2+ is much more easily captured than insoluble Hg0 in flue gas desulfurization (FGD) units. Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology widely applied for reducing NOx emissions from power plants also affects the speciation of Hg in the coal combustion flue gases. Recent full-scale field tests showed increases in Hg oxidation across the SCR catalysts for plants firing bituminous coals with sulfur (S) content ranging from 1.0 to 3.9%. However, plants firing sub-bituminous Powder River Basin (PRB) coals which contains significantly lower chlorine (Cl) and S content and higher calcium (Ca) content than those of the bituminous coals, showed very little change in mercury speciation across the SCR reactors. A field study conducted by EPRI showed blending of PRB coal with a bituminous coal (60% PRB, 40% bituminous) resulted in increased Hg2+ from 45% at the SCR inlet to 93% at the outlet. Coal blending appears to be a potentially cost effective approach for increasing Hg oxidation for PRB coal-fired SCR systems. A study has been undertaken to investigate the effect of blending PRB coal with an Eastern bituminous coal on the speciation of Hg across an SCR catalyst. In this project, a pilot-scale coal combustor equipped with an SCR reactor for NOx control was used for evaluating the effect of coal blending on improving Hg oxidation across an SCR catalyst.