Metals In Flue Gas Research Articles

Emission characteristics and removal of heavy metals in flue gas: a case study in waste incineration and coal-fired power plants.

Heavy metal pollutants such as Hg, As, Pb, Cr, and Cd emitted from coal and waste combustion have received widespread attention. In this study, we systematically investigated the emission characteristics of heavy metals in waste incineration and coal-fired flue gases, focused on testing the removal effect of self-made cold electrode electrostatic precipitator (CE-ESP) on heavy metals in flue gas, and made a comparative analysis with the existing air pollution control devices (APCDs). Test results from waste incineration power plant showed that each APCD showed a certain effect on the removal of heavy metals in condensable particulate matter (CPM), with an average removal efficiency of bag filter was 86%, but its effect on Hg removal was slightly worse. Under the coupled field with electrified cold electrode plate operation mode, the average removal efficiency of CE-ESP on heavy metals in CPM was as high as 93%, including 76% for Hg. The removal efficiency of heavy metals (especially Hg) in CPM increased with the increase of flue gas temperature difference between inlet and outlet of CE-ESP. Test results from this coal-fired power plant showed that heavy metals were enriched in fly ash to a higher degree than in slag, the synergistic control of heavy metals in submicron particulate matter by the dust remover was not obvious, and there was a significant correlation between each heavy metal emission factor and its content in coal. Under the temperature field with non-electric cold electrode plate operation mode, the overall effect of CE-ESP on the removal of gaseous heavy metals was better than that of particulate heavy metals. Under the conventional electric field operation mode, CE-ESP was less effective in removing particulate Cr and gaseous Hg0. Under the coupled field with electrified cold electrode plate operation mode, the average removal efficiencies of CE-ESP for particulate and gaseous heavy metals were 82.37% and 76.16%, respectively.

Emission Characteristics and Control of Heavy Metals in Secondary Copper Smelting Process

Secondary copper smelting is an important source of heavy metal emission. Flue gas samples were collected from different stages in secondary copper smelters to study the emission characteristics and control of particulate matters (PM) and heavy metals such as Cd, Cr, As, Pb, Sn, and Sb. The mass concentrations of heavy metals in flue gas and fly ash were determined using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The emission factors of heavy metals were estimated. The results showed that the mass concentrations of heavy metals and PM in the flue gas were high in the cooling stage. After passing through a series of air pollution control devices, such as a bag filter and adsorption tower, the heavy metals and PM were simultaneously removed with a removal efficiency of 80%-99%. The concentration order of heavy metals in the stack gas from different anode furnace stages followed feeding-fusion>oxidation≈deoxidization. In general, the mass concentrations of heavy metals and PM in the stack gas could meet the industry emission standards. The average emission factors of As, Pb, Cr, Sn, Sb, and Cd were 2.6×103, 2.4×103, 2.7×103, 5.6×102, 34.1, and 9.8 mg·t-1, respectively. This could provide data support for estimating the annual emission amounts of heavy metals from the secondary copper industry and establishing the emission inventories. The fly ash contained high concentrations of Cu and Zn, which can be recycled as raw materials for recycling the valuable metals.

Efficient NOx Abatement over Alkali-Resistant Catalysts via Constructing Durable Dimeric VOx Species.

The presence of alkali metals in flue gas is still an obstacle to the practical application of catalysts for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NOx by NH3. Polymeric vanadyl species play an essential role in ensuring the effective NOx abatement for NH3-SCR. However, polymeric vanadyl would be conventionally deactivated by the poison of alkali metals such as potassium, and it still remains a great challenge to construct robust and stable vanadyl species. Here, it was demonstrated that a more durable dimeric VOx active site could be constructed with the assistance of triethylamine, thereby achieving alkali-resistant NOx abatement. Due to the rational construction of polymerization structures, the obtained TiO2-supported cerium vanadate catalyst featured more stable dimeric VOx species and the active sites could survive even after the poisoning of alkali metal. Moreover, the depolymerization of VOx was suppressed endowing the catalysts with more Brønsted and Lewis acid sites after the poisoning of alkali metal, which ensured the efficient NOx reduction. This work unraveled the effects of alkali metal on the polymerization state of active species and opens up a way to develop low-temperature alkali-resistant catalysts for NOx abatement.

Whole life cycle performance evolution of selective catalytic reduction catalyst in coal-fired power plants

Four typical coal-fired power plants were employed to explore the performance evolution within the whole life cycle of catalysts. The results revealed that the amount of active ingredients in the catalysts decreased over time. The content of V2O5 and WO3 in four units had decreased by 3.32%–32.8% and 12.9%–22.9% respectively. However, alkali metals and alkaline earth metals in flue gas were gradually deposited on the catalyst and led to catalyst poisoning, especially in two units due to arsenic poisoning. The specific surface area of catalysts decreased significantly in the first year of operation, accounting for 87.3%, 47.8%, 55.1% and 86.7% of the decline in the lifetime, which may be the main reason for the decline of catalyst activity during this period. The wall thickness of catalysts decreased linearly with the operation time in the lifetime. The relative activity of catalysts at the end of designed service lifetime was between 0.90 and 0.93, whereas the decrease range of SO2/SO3 conversion rate was within 15.4%–35.6%. Influenced by the catalyst design and the variations of practical operation conditions, the difference between the actual and designed service lifetimes of catalysts in the four units was 2.08%, 44.0%, 4.17%, and − 25.0%, respectively.

Facile synthesis of hollow nanotube MnCoOx catalyst with superior resistance to SO2 and alkali metal poisons for NH3-SCR removal of NOx

A bottleneck of catalyst application to industrial flue gas denitrification is that the toxicity of SO2 and alkali metals in flue gas will result in the deactivation of active sites on the catalyst surface. In this work, in order to retain the active sites and minimize the catalyst deactivation by SO2 and alkali metals, we designed a hollow nanotube structured MnCoOx catalyst (MnCoOx-HNT) with surface anchoring function via a simple, easy to scale up and template free synthesis approach. The formation of hollow nanotube structure could be achieved easily by simply adjusting the metal salt precursor without any template or complicated equipment aids. More importantly, the hollow nanotube structured catalyst achieved excellent catalytic performance (80.1% NOx reduction) at 150 °C even when simultaneously exposed to the synthetic flue gas with coexistence of H2O, SO2 and alkali metals reaction feeds. The outstanding poisoning-resistant property of MnCoOx-HNT could be attributed to its unique hollow nanotube structure effectively protecting the active sites on the inner surface from being poisoned by SO2 or alkali metals. In addition, the abundant OH groups acted as sacrificial sites anchoring SO2 and alkali metals on the catalyst surface, resulting in the formation of sulfate species mainly in the form of surface sulfate rather than bulk sulfate. OH groups also had preference to combine with alkali metals, which delayed the combination of alkali metals with the Mn-Co active sites and consequently the poisoning process. The above excellent performance makes it possible for the MnCoOx-HNT to be applied to denitrification under extreme flue gas, and also provides a new idea for the design of functional materials with satisfactory SO2 and alkali resistance properties.

Release and migration characteristics of sodium and potassium in high alkali coal under oxy-fuel fluidized bed combustion condition

Zhundong coal is promising to replace inferior coal in fossil-fueled power plants, considering its high abundance, low contents of sulfur and nitrogen. However, the relative high contents of alkalis, especially sodium and potassium, damage the operational economy and safety badly since the release of alkali metals in flue gas can lead to fly ash-related problems such as slagging, ash accumulation and corrosion. Although, oxy-fuel circulating fluidized bed (CFB) combustion is beneficial to reduce the release of sodium and potassium by lowering the operation temperature, the ash formation characteristics of Zhundong coal under the oxy-fuel CFB is still scarce. Our results showed that the residual amounts of sodium and potassium in the ash samples, both tend to decrease with increasing temperature no matter under air combustion or oxy-fuel combustion. However, the sodium content in the cinder obtained under the oxy-fuel combustion atmosphere was higher than that under the air combustion atmosphere, and the insoluble sodium, mainly existed in the form of aluminosilicates, was the main form. In addition, the increase of steam content in both atmospheres reduced the sodium content in the cinder while the residual amount of potassium increased. Density functional theory calculations verified the transformation behavior between sodium and potassium and the inhibiting effect of steam. This study elucidates the release and migration characteristics of sodium and potassium in Zhundong coal both experimentally and theoretically and will benefit the popularity of Zhundong coal.

Study of Temperature Fields and Heavy Metal Content in the Ash and Flue Gas Produced by the Combustion of Briquettes Coming from Paper and Cardboard Waste

The present study focused on the combustion of four types of briquettes made from paper and cardboard waste produced in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Rotary and tubular kilns were used to study the combustion. The combustion mean temperatures, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) content in the ash and heavy metals content in the ash and the flue gas were analyzed. The combustion steady phase mean temperatures ranged from 950 °C to 750 °C were obtained according to briquettes type. The temperature favored the transfer of the heavy metal in the flue gas comparatively to the ash mainly for Hg, Cd and Pb. The Pb, Hg and Mn content in flue gas and the ash are higher than their content in the parent wood used for paper production due to the additive during the manufacturing process. The results showed a high content of heavy metal in flue gas produced by combustion of briquette made with office paper and in the ash for the briquette made of corrugated cardboard. Furthermore, the low heavy metal contain in the ash allow their use for soil amendment. However, ash contained a low proportion of NPK (less than 2%) which does not allow their usage as fertilizer alone.

The poisoning effect of PbO on Mn-Ce/TiO2 catalyst for selective catalytic reduction of NO with NH3 at low temperature

Lead oxide (PbO) as one of the typical heavy metals in flue gas from power plants has strong accumulation as well as poisoning effects on SCR catalysts. In this paper, a series of PbO-doped Mn-Ce/TiO2 catalysts were synthesized by impregnation method. The poisoning effects of PbO over Mn-Ce/TiO2 samples for selective catalytic reduction of NO by NH3 were investigated based on catalytic activity test and characterizations. The NO conversion of Mn-Ce/TiO2 was greatly decreased after the addition of PbO. It was obvious that the NO conversion efficiency of Mn-Ce/TiO2 catalyst declined from 96.75% to about 40% at 200°C when Pb:Mn molar ratio reached 0.5. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Hydrogen temperature programmed reduction (H2-TPR), Ammonia temperature programmed desorption (NH3-TPD) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) were carried out to study the deactivation reasons of PbO poisoned catalysts. Manganese oxides’ crystallization, less reducible of manganese and cerium oxides, the decreasing of surface area, Mn4+ as well as Ce3+ concentration and chemisorbed oxygen (Ob) after the introduction of PbO, all of these resulted in a poor SCR performance. Furthermore, the alteration of acid sites (especially Brönsted acid sites), low ammonia adsorbance, an obvious reducing of ad-NOx species (only a spot of bidentate nitrates remained) and the vanishing of amide species contributed to the deactivation of Mn-Ce/TiO2 catalyst by PbO doping as well.

Environmental impacts of a large-scale incinerator with mixed MSW of high water content from a LCA perspective

Large-scale incinerators are applied widely as a result of the heavy burden of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated, while strong opposition is arising from the public living nearby. A large-scale working incineration plant of 1500ton/day was chosen for evaluation using life cycle assessment. It was found that the corresponding human toxicity impacts via soil (HTs), human toxicity impacts via water (HTw) and human toxicity impacts via air (HTa) categories are 0.213, 2.171, and 0.012 personal equivalents (PE), and global warming (GW100) and nutrient enrichment (NE) impacts are 0.002 and 0.001 PE per ton of waste burned for this plant. Heavy metals in flue gas, such as Hg and Pb, are the two dominant contributors to the toxicity impact categories, and energy recovery could reduce the GW100 and NE greatly. The corresponding HTs, HTw and HTa decrease to 0.087, 0.911 and 0.008 PE, and GW100 turns into savings of −0.007 PE due to the increase of the heating value from 3935 to 5811kJ/kg, if a trommel screener of 40mmmesh size is used to pre-separate MSW. MSW sorting and the reduction of water content by physical pressure might be two promising pre-treatment methods to improve the combustion performance, and the application of stricter standards for leachate discharge and the flue gas purification process are two critical factors for improvement of the environmental profile identified in this work.

Kinetics Study for the Effect of Alkali Metals on the Homogenous Mercury Oxidation under Isothermal Conditions

This study was mainly focused on the transformation of alkali metals in flue gas, the relationship between mercury oxidation and alkali metals, and the effect of concentrations of Cl2 and SO2 on mercury oxidation. Thermodynamic stability of alkali metals during coal combustion was analyzed with the chemical thermodynamics software, Chemical Equilibrium with Applications (CEA), and so were the interactions among alkali metals and Cl-species or S-species. The analysis results suggested that mercury oxidation in postcombustion gases could be enhanced by alkali metals. Based on the previous studies, a homogeneous Hg/C/H/O/N/S/Cl/K/Na kinetics model under isothermal conditions was established in this paper, and the kinetics calculation and sensitivity analysis were realized by CHEMKIN 4.1. According to the kinetics model, it is concluded that the main products for K and Na are KSO2, KCl, NaSO2, and NaCl at 793 K. Additionally, the impact of alkali metals on mercury oxidation will vary with the concentrations o...

Emission, Mass Balance, and Distribution Characteristics of PCDD/Fs and Heavy Metals during Cocombustion of Sewage Sludge and Coal in Power Plants

The emission, mass balance, and distribution characteristics of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) as well as those of heavy metals (Hg, Cd, Pb, Cr, and Cu) were investigated during the cocombustion of 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% sewage sludge (SS) in a pulverized coal power plant. The PCDD/F emissions increased from 7.00 to 32.72 pg I-TEQ/Nm(3) as the amount of SS in the mixed fuel (MF) increased. High sulfur content and relatively low chlorine levels in MF resulted in lower PCDD/F emissions. SS exhibited a remarkable difference in congener profiles compared with flue gas, bottom ash, and fly ash. The negative dioxin mass balance indicated that the cofiring of SS with coal in power plants was not a source but a sink of dioxins. The concentrations and emission factors of heavy metals in flue gas and bottom ash, as well as fly ash, all exhibited a tendency to increase with increasing input values of heavy metals in MF. The distribution characteristics of the investigated heavy metals were primarily dependent on the evaporative properties of these metals. The availability of chlorine could alter the heavy metal distribution behavior. The emitted pollutants in the power plant were below the legal limits.

Heavy metals in flue gas cleaning residue

During combustion, most of the inorganic nutrients and trace elements in the fuel are retained and enriched in the ash. However, here we show that, due to the low total heavy metal concentrations, the flue gas cleaning residue (i.e. the fly ash) originating from the wet scrubber device at a medium-sized (32 MW) municipal district heating plant, is a potential forest fertilizer. Furthermore, the easily soluble calcium (1,980 mg kg−1; d.w.) and phosphorus (50 mg kg−1; d.w.) concentrations indicate that the flue gas cleaning residue is a potential agent for soil remediation and for improving soil fertility.

Hazardous air pollutants emission from coal and oil‐fired power plants

AbstractHazardous air pollutants (HAPs) emission characteristics from coal (anthracite, bituminous) and oil‐fired power plants were studied in order to control pollutants by formulating US maximum achievable control technology (MACT)‐like regulation in Korea. Sampling and analysis were carried out according to either Korean standard test method or US EPA method. Relatively lower levels of NOx and SOx were emitted from plants burning bituminous than the anthracite coal. Less dust was emitted from oil‐fired power plants. Mercury, lead, and chromium were dominant in coal‐fired power plants, following which, nickel and chromium were emitted from oil‐fired power plants. The major volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from coal‐fired plants were 1,2‐dichloroethane, benzene, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, trichloro‐ethylene. The emission of mercury and other heavy metals in flue gas was attributed to fuel types, operating conditions, residence time in the control devices and air pollution control devices configuration. After emission tests in the field and on analysis of the continuous emission monitoring data collected from facilities under operation and consideration of other various factors, management guidelines will be suggested with special reference to US MACT‐like regulation. Copyright © 2009 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Continuous measurement of metals in flue gas using ICP-OES.

A system capable of continuously measuring a range of metallic elements in the effluent gas from incinerators and other similar industrial processes, and providing on-line results has been developed. With a state-of-the-art mobile laboratory measurements were taken from a UK municipal solid waste incinerator. The detection system used was an ICP-OES, with a modified torch to allow the introduction of flue gas directly into the plasma. Metals that were investigated were Ni, Hg, V, Al, Na, Ca, Cu, Sn, Pb, Sb, As, Cd and Tl, with limits of detection in the range 0.0004 mg m(-3) to 0.1 mg m(-3) being calculated. Emission measurements produced data that showed that the MSWI plants emission were significantly lower than the emission limits specified in EC 2000/76/EC.