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Distribution and Fate of Mercury in Pulverized Bituminous Coal-Fired Power Plants in Coal Energy-Dominant Huainan City, China

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Abstract

A better understanding on the partitioning behavior of mercury (Hg) during coal combustion in large-scale coal-fired power plants is fundamental for drafting Hg-emission control regulations. Two large coal-fired utility boilers, equipped with electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) and a wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) system, respectively, in coal energy-dominant Huainan City, China, were selected to investigate the distribution and fate of Hg during coal combustion. In three sampling campaigns, we found that Hg in bottom ash was severely depleted with a relative enrichment (RE) index <7 %, whereas the RE index for fly ash (9–54 %) was comparatively higher and variable. Extremely high Hg was concentrated in gypsum (≤4500 ng/g), which is produced in the WFGD system. Mass balance calculation shows that the shares of Hg in bottom ash, fly ash, WFGD products (gypsum, effluents, sludge), and stack emissions were <2, 17–32, 7–22, and 54–82 %, respectively. The Hg-removal efficiencies of ESPs, WFGD, and ESPs + WFGD were 17–32, 10–29, and 36–46 %, respectively. The Hg-emission factor of studied boilers was in a high range of 0.24–0.29 g Hg/t coal. We estimated that Hg emissions in all Huainan coal-fired power plants varied from 1.8 Mg in 2003 to 7.3 Mg in 2010.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge support from the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program 2014CB238903); the China Postdoctoral Science (Special) Foundation (Grants No. 2014M551821 and 2015T80668); and the Anhui Provincial Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 1608085QD73). Four anonymous reviewers and the editor are thanked for constructive comments that significantly improved the quality of this contribution.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, Anhui, China

    Bingyu Chen, Guijian Liu & Ruoyu Sun

  2. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, 710075, Shaanxi, China

    Bingyu Chen & Guijian Liu

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  1. Bingyu Chen
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  2. Guijian Liu
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Correspondence to Guijian Liu or Ruoyu Sun.

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Chen, B., Liu, G. & Sun, R. Distribution and Fate of Mercury in Pulverized Bituminous Coal-Fired Power Plants in Coal Energy-Dominant Huainan City, China. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 70, 724–733 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-016-0267-7

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