Grantee Research Project Results
Improved Sorbent for Removing Mercury From Hazardous Waste Incinerators
EPA Contract Number: EPD05043Title: Improved Sorbent for Removing Mercury From Hazardous Waste Incinerators
Investigators: Alptekin, Gokhan
Small Business: TDA Research Inc.
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: I
Project Period: March 1, 2005 through August 31, 2005
Project Amount: $70,000
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase I (2005) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Air Quality and Air Toxics , Endocrine Disruptors , Environmental Engineering , SBIR - Air and Climate , Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) , Watersheds
Description:
During this research project, TDA Research, Inc. (TDA) will develop a new, lower cost and more environmentally benign sorbent system to remove mercury from the flue gases produced by waste combustion incinerators. Current removal systems use dry sorbent injection of activated carbon, which is collected in the fabric filter for disposal. These systems have low capital costs because they use existing equipment to capture the mercury, but the use of carbon or modified carbon sorbents significantly increases the operating costs and raises serious safety and environmental issues. TDA has identified new dry injection sorbents for mercury abatement that promise higher performance and lower operating costs. The sorbents bind the mercury tightly to make the spent sorbent disposal more environmentally benign. During Phase I, TDA will prepare new sorbents and evaluate them to select the best formulation. The optimum operating conditions for the sorbent will be identified, and the impact of other flue gas components on its performance will be evaluated. Phase I also will include an engineering analysis to assess the cost of mercury removal with the new sorbent technology.
The sorbents that TDA Research will develop to remove mercury from hazardous waste incinerators also could be applied to mercury abatement at coal-fired electric utilities. The market size is very large; such power plants account for 60 percent of the electric power generated in the United States. In addition, the same technology would be applicable to the much smaller area of mercury abatement in municipal waste incinerators and waste-to-energy facilities. These facilities are becoming more prevalent in the United States, and are particularly common in Europe, where trouble-prone carbon-packed beds now are used for mercury control.
Supplemental Keywords:
small business, SBIR, air pollution, mercury removal, hazardous waste, incinerators, environmentally benign sorbent system, dry injection, activated carbon, abatement, flue gas, EPA, RFA, Scientific Discipline, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, Air, Toxics, Waste, National Recommended Water Quality, Chemical Engineering, air toxics, Environmental Chemistry, HAPS, Hazardous Waste, Hazardous, 33/50, Incineration/Combustion, Environmental Engineering, combustion byproducts, hazardous waste incineration, mercury, medical waste incinerator, hazardous air pollutants, air pollution control, flue gas, coal, sorbents, combustion technology, industrial boilers, environmentally benign sorbent, Mercury Compounds, mercury & mercury compounds, flue gas emissions, aqueous scrubbing, combustion, combustion exhaust gases, air emissions, coal combustion, combustion flue gases, toxicity characteristic leaching procedure, removalProgress and Final Reports:
SBIR Phase II:
Improved Sorbent for Removing Mercury from Hazardous Waste Incinerators | Final ReportThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.