Abstract
Due to the restriction such as the Minamata Convention as well as the IED of the European Commission, mercury removal from flue gases of coal-fired power plants (CPP) is an increasingly important environmental issue. This makes this topic very crucial for both the energy industry and scientists. This paper shows how mercury arises from natural resources, i.e., coals, through their combustion processes in CPP and considers the issue of mercury content in flue gases and solid-state coal combustion by-products. The main part of this paper presents a review of the solid sorbents available for elemental mercury control and removal processes, tested on a laboratory scale. The described solutions have a potential for wider usage in exhaust gas treatment processes in the energy production sector. These solutions represent the latest developments in the field of elemental mercury removal from gases. The authors present an overview of the wide range of solid sorbents and their modifications intended to increase affinity for Hg0. Among the presented sorbents are the well-known activated carbon solutions but also novel modifications to these and other innovative sorbent proposals based on, e.g., zeolites, biochars, other carbon-based materials, metal-organic frameworks. The paper presents a wide range of characteristics of the described sorbents, as well as the conditions for the Hg0 removal experiments summarizing the compendium of novel solid sorbent solutions dedicated to the removal of elemental mercury from gases.Graphic abstract
Highlights
Atmospheric mercury pollution from anthropogenic sources has been one of the key topics of global environmental concern in recent years
The paper presents a wide range of characteristics of the described sorbents, as well as the conditions for the Hg0 removal experiments summarizing the compendium of novel solid sorbent solutions dedicated to the removal of elemental mercury from gases
The aim of the research in this paper is to present a compendium of novel solid sorbent solutions dedicated to the removal of elemental mercury from gases
Summary
Atmospheric mercury pollution from anthropogenic sources has been one of the key topics of global environmental concern in recent years. The main fossil fuels contaminated with mercury are coal, petroleum, natural gas, shale oil and bitumen These are hydrocarbons, formed as a result of geological processes, from the remains of organic matter produced hundreds of millions of years ago (Chmielewski 2004). Numerous pollutants, such as CO2, SOx, NOx, VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and mercury, are released into the atmosphere (Chmielewski 2004). This branch of the energy industry generates significant amounts of solid by-products, such as slugs, slug-ash mixtures, fly and bottom ashes and microspheres, which contain mercury in their composition and are very harmful to the earth’s ecosystems (Brown et al 1999; Dastoor and Larocque 2004; Presto and Granite 2006; Ahmaruzzaman 2010). The indicated sorbents and the solutions used to modify them and increase their affinity for removing elemental mercury, have the potential for wider application
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