TY - JOUR
T1 - Preparation and characterization of high efficiency modified activated carbon for the capture of mercury from flue gas in coal-fired power plants
AU - Wade, Colin B.
AU - Thurman, Chad
AU - Freas, William
AU - Student, James
AU - Matty, David
AU - Mohanty, Dillip K.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge financial support for this project from Research Excellence Fund, State of Michigan. Simulated CFP tests were kindly conducted by Dr. Grant Dunham, Energy Environmental Research Center, University of North Dakota. We thank Mr. Ryan Paul, Mr. Brandon Whitman, and Professor Valeri Petkov, for the X-ray diffraction data. Mr. Philip Oshel provided us with SEM/EDS data, and we are thankful.
PY - 2012/5
Y1 - 2012/5
N2 - On a global scale, coal-fired power plants supply approximately 25 percent of current energy needs. Mercury, a highly toxic metal, is commonly found as a ubiquitous trace element in coal. Flue gases produced from the combustion of coal contain both mercury and mercury ions. Currently, halogenated activated carbon (e.g. DARCO Hg-LH@ ) is considered to be the most effective commercially available mercury sorbent. We report the preparation and characteristics of an activated-carbon-based, polyethyleneimine-modified material, which was subsequently cross-linked using elemental sulfur and diethyldithiocarbamate as an accelerator. The synthesized material exhibits a three-fold increase in the removal of elemental mercury compared to DARCO Hg-LH. In contrast to activated carbon, which adsorbs mercury, the material developed in our laboratory reacts with mercury to form metacinnabar (HgS), which can be safely processed or disposed of. Moreover, the prepared material can adsorb up to 99 percent of ionic Mercury (II) species in solution, compared to 78 percent absorption of Mercury (II) by DARCO Hg-LH. These comparative bench-scale results were obtained under identical experimental conditions. In addition, we report data obtained from a simulated bench-scale pilot plant study, supporting the superior performance of the polymer modified material.
AB - On a global scale, coal-fired power plants supply approximately 25 percent of current energy needs. Mercury, a highly toxic metal, is commonly found as a ubiquitous trace element in coal. Flue gases produced from the combustion of coal contain both mercury and mercury ions. Currently, halogenated activated carbon (e.g. DARCO Hg-LH@ ) is considered to be the most effective commercially available mercury sorbent. We report the preparation and characteristics of an activated-carbon-based, polyethyleneimine-modified material, which was subsequently cross-linked using elemental sulfur and diethyldithiocarbamate as an accelerator. The synthesized material exhibits a three-fold increase in the removal of elemental mercury compared to DARCO Hg-LH. In contrast to activated carbon, which adsorbs mercury, the material developed in our laboratory reacts with mercury to form metacinnabar (HgS), which can be safely processed or disposed of. Moreover, the prepared material can adsorb up to 99 percent of ionic Mercury (II) species in solution, compared to 78 percent absorption of Mercury (II) by DARCO Hg-LH. These comparative bench-scale results were obtained under identical experimental conditions. In addition, we report data obtained from a simulated bench-scale pilot plant study, supporting the superior performance of the polymer modified material.
KW - Mercury removal
KW - Metacinnabar
KW - Modified activated carbon
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84857020895&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.fuproc.2012.01.017
DO - 10.1016/j.fuproc.2012.01.017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84857020895
SN - 0378-3820
VL - 97
SP - 107
EP - 117
JO - Fuel Processing Technology
JF - Fuel Processing Technology
ER -