Reactivity of fly ashes in a spray dryer FGD process

Abstract

During the period 1981-1982, a study was performed to determine the ability of various fly ashes to retain sulfur dioxide in a pilot plant spray dryer/fabric filter flue gas desulfurization system. This knowledge would provide design engineers with the necessary data to determine whether the fly ash from a particular utility could be used as an effective supplement or substitute for slaked lime in a spray dryer system. The study commenced with the collection of 22 fly ashes from lignite, subbituminous, and bituminous eastern and western coals. The ashes were contacted with the flue gas entering the pilot plant by two different techniques. In the first, the ashes were slurried in water and injected into the spray dryer through a spinning disk atomizer. In the second, the ashes were injected as a dry additive into the flue gas upstream of the spray dryer. Analyses were conducted to determine the ability of each ash to retain sulfur dioxide in the system followed by statistical correlations of the sulfur retention with the physical/chemical properties of each ash. 17 references, 32 figures, 19 tables.