SULFURIC ACID REMOVAL PROCESS EVALUATION: LONG-TERM RESULTS

Abstract

The objective of this project is to demonstrate the use of alkaline reagents injected into the furnace of coal-fired boilers as a means of controlling sulfuric acid emissions. The project is being co-funded by the U.S. DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory, under Cooperative Agreement DE-FC26-99FT40718, along with EPRI, the American Electric Power Company (AEP), FirstEnergy Corp., the Tennessee Valley Authority, and Dravo Lime, Inc. Sulfuric acid controls are becoming of increasing interest to power generators with coal-fired units for a number of reasons. Sulfuric acid is a Toxic Release Inventory species and can cause a variety of plant operation problems such as air heater plugging and fouling, back-end corrosion, and plume opacity. These issues will likely be exacerbated with the retrofit of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for NO{sub x} control on many coal-fired plants, as SCR catalysts are known to further oxidize a portion of the flue gas SO{sub 2} to SO{sub 3}. The project previously tested the effectiveness of furnace injection of four different calcium-and/or magnesium-based alkaline sorbents on full-scale utility boilers. These reagents were tested during four one- to two-week tests conducted on two FirstEnergy Bruce Mansfield Plant (BMP) units. One of the sorbents tested was a magnesium hydroxide byproduct slurry produced from a modified Thiosorbic{reg_sign} Lime wet flue gas desulfurization system. The other three sorbents are available commercially and include dolomite, pressure-hydrated dolomitic lime, and commercial magnesium hydroxide. The dolomite reagent was injected as a dry powder through out-of-service burners, while the other three reagents were injected as slurries through air-atomizing nozzles inserted through the front wall of the upper furnace, either across from the nose of the furnace or across from the pendant superheater tubes. After completing the four one- to two-week tests, the most promising sorbents were selected for longer-term (approximately 25-day) full-scale tests on two different units. The longer-term tests were conducted to confirm the effectiveness of the sorbents tested over extended operation on two different boilers, and to determine balance-of-plant impacts. The first long-term test was conducted on FirstEnergy's BMP, Unit 3, and the second test was conducted on AEP's Gavin Plant, Unit 1. The Gavin Plant testing provided an opportunity to evaluate the effects of sorbent injected into the furnace on SO{sub 3} formed across an operating SCR reactor. This report presents the results from those long-term tests. The tests determined the effectiveness of injecting commercially available magnesium hydroxide slurry (Gavin Plant) and byproduct magnesium hydroxide slurry (both Gavin Plant and BMP) for sulfuric acid control. The results show that injecting either slurry could achieve up to 70 to 75% overall sulfuric acid removal. At BMP, this overall removal was limited by the need to maintain acceptable electrostatic precipitator (ESP) particulate control performance. At Gavin Plant, the overall sulfuric acid removal was limited because the furnace injected sorbent was less effective at removing SO{sub 3} formed across the SCR system installed on the unit for NOX control than at removing SO{sub 3} formed in the furnace. The long-term tests also determined balance-of-plant impacts from slurry injection during the two tests. These include impacts on boiler back-end temperatures and pressure drops, SCR catalyst properties, ESP performance, removal of other flue gas species, and flue gas opacity. For the most part the balance-of-plant impacts were neutral to positive, although adverse effects on ESP performance became an issue during the BMP test.