Mercury Capture Performance and Kinetics of CCl4-Adsorbed Activated Carbon Pretreated by the Mechanochemical Method.

Abstract

In the present work, CCl4-adsorbed activated carbon pretreated by the mechanochemical method (CCl4-AC) was produced for gas-phase mercury capture. The physicochemical properties of the CCl4-AC sorbent were analyzed via N2 adsorption, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The mercury capture performance of the CCl4-AC sorbent under different flue gas components was investigated in a fixed-bed experimental device. The programmed temperature desorption of mercury was used to determine the mercury capture product of the spent CCl4-AC. Finally, the mass transfer factor model proposed by Fulazzaky was used to analyze mercury capture on the CCl4-AC for clarifying its characteristics. The results showed that the prepared CCl4-AC can be used as a mercury sorbent because of its high mercury capture performance. Mercury capture by the CCl4-AC was interfered by SO2 and promoted by O2 and H2O. Hg-temperature programmed desorption (Hg-TPD) analysis indicated that the main mercury capture products of the CCl4-AC were HgCl2 and HgO. Because of the presence of SO2 in flue gas, there was a little Hg2SO4 formation on the sorbent. XPS analysis showed that the functional group of C-Cl played the dominant role in Hg0 capture, and part of the C-Cl groups were converted into Cl- after mercury capture. The mercury desorption energy of the spent CCl4-AC was 50.49 kJ/mol and stronger compared with that of raw activated carbon. Mass transfer analysis displayed that surface adsorption was the main form at the beginning of mercury adsorption, and the external mass transfer was the mercury adsorption rate-controlling step. Then, mercury adsorption entered the second stage; internal diffusion adsorption stage with internal mass transfer became the adsorption rate control step.