MERCURY CONTROL WITH THE ADVANCED HYBRID PARTICULATE COLLECTOR

Abstract

This project was awarded under U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Program Solicitation DE-PS26-00NT40769 and specifically addresses Technical Topical Area 4--Testing Novel and Less Mature Control Technologies on Actual Flue Gas at the Pilot-Scale. The project team will include the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) as the main contractor, W.L. Gore and Associates, Inc., as a technical and financial partner, and the Big Stone Power Plant operated by Otter Tail Power Company, which will host the field testing portion of the research. Since 1995, DOE has supported development of a new concept in particulate control, called the advanced hybrid particulate collector (AHPC). The AHPC combines the best features of electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) and baghouses in a unique configuration, providing major synergism between the two collection methods, both in the particulate collection step and in the transfer of dust to the hopper. The AHPC provides ultrahigh collection efficiency, overcoming the problem of excessive fine-particle emission with conventional ESPs, and it solves the problem of reentrainment and re-collection of dust in conventional baghouses. The AHPC appears to have unique advantages for mercury control over baghouses or ESPs as an excellent gas-solid contactor. The objective of the three-task project is to demonstrate 90% total mercury control in the AHPC at a lower cost than current mercury control estimates. The approach includes bench-scale batch testing that ties the new work to previous results and links results with larger-scale pilot testing with real flue gas on a coal-fired combustion system, pilot-scale testing on a coal-fired combustion system with both a pulse-jet baghouse and an AHPC to prove or disprove the research hypotheses, and field demonstration pilot-scale testing at a utility power plant to prove scaleup and demonstrate longer-term mercury control. This project, if successful, will demonstrate at the pilot-scale level a technology that would provide a cost-effective technique to accomplish control of mercury emissions and, at the same time, greatly enhance fine particulate collection efficiency. The technology can be used to retrofit systems currently employing inefficient ESP technology as well as for new construction, thereby providing a solution to a large segment of the U.S utility industry as well as other industries requiring mercury control.