Partitioning of Mercury, Arsenic, Selenium, Boron, and Chloride in a Full-Scale Coal Combustion Process Equipped with Selective Catalytic Reduction, Electrostatic Precipitation, and Flue Gas Desulfurization Systems†

Abstract

A full-scale field study was carried out at a 795 MWe coal-fired power plant equipped with selective catalytic reduction (SCR), an electrostatic precipitator (ESP), and wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems to investigate the distribution of selected trace elements (i.e., mercury, arsenic, selenium, boron, and chloride) from coal, FGD reagent slurry, makeup water to flue gas, solid byproduct, and wastewater streams. Flue gases were collected from the SCR outlet, ESP inlet, FGD inlet, and stack. Concurrent with flue gas sampling, coal, bottom ash, economizer ash, and samples from the FGD process were also collected for elemental analysis. By combining plant operation parameters, the overall material balances of selected elements were established. The removal efficiencies of As, Se, Hg, and B by the ESP unit were 88, 56, 17, and 8%, respectively. Only about 2.5% of Cl was condensed and removed from flue gas by fly ash. The FGD process removed over 90% of Cl, 77% of B, 76% of Hg, 30% of Se, and 5% of As. About 90% and 99% of the FGD-removed Hg and Se were associated with gypsum. For B and Cl, over 99% were discharged from the coal combustion process with the wastewater. Mineral trona (trisodium hydrogendicarbonate dehydrate, Na3H(CO3)2·2H2O) was injected before the ESP unit to control the emission of sulfur trioxide (SO3). By comparing the trace elements compositions in the fly ash samples collected from the locations before and after the trona injection, the injection of trona did not show an observable effect on the partitioning behaviors of selenium and arsenic, but it significantly increased the adsorption of mercury onto fly ash. The stack emissions of mercury, boron, selenium, and chloride were for the most part in the gas phase.