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High Temperature Desulfurization of Flue Gas Using Calcium-Based Sorbents

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Book cover Dry Scrubbing Technologies for Flue Gas Desulfurization

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Abstract

Removal of sulfur dioxide from flue gas is mainly accomplished by contacting the flue gases with calcium-based (limestone, lime and hydrated lime) sorbents which show remarkable sulfur dioxide scavenging abilities. Although the most commonly used industrial practice is wet limestone scrubbing process, dry scrubbing processes, especially dry sorbent injection (DSI), technology offers a more economical and retrofit technology. Application of DSI for flue gas de-sulfurization (FGD) in high temperature range of 800–1200°C (upper-furnace region) involves injection of dry calcium-based sorbents in the above-the-flame regions of a coal-fired furnace. At high temperatures these sorbents undergo calcination resulting in formation of highly reactive CaO which is subsequently sulfated by SO2 to form CaSO4. Another phenomenon which is typical of high temperature applications is the deactivation of the CaO via thermal sintering. At high temperature, calcination, sulfation and sintering of the sorbent proceed concomitantly. The lack of interest is applying DSI technology for FGD stems from the inherent inefficiencies associated with this process. Under utilization of the sorbent and its inability to meet the required SO2 removal standards are the main reasons for unacceptance of DSI as a viable FGD process.

A novel entrained flow reactor system is developed with capabilities to study the gas-sorbent reaction kinetics within a few milliseconds. The calcination and sulfation reactions are studied for their inherent characteristics and the influence of internal structural properties on reaction kinetics is also determined. Time resolved kinetic data has revealed that a substantial amount of sorbent sulfation takes place within the first 100 ms of the reaction and at later times, because of very high transport-related resistances, the sulfation reaction is prematurely terminated. The structural studies have clearly shown certain important transformations such as the preferential loss of small pore sizes and the effectiveness of pores of certain optimum size.

An effort is made to provide a mathematical model to describe the experimental findings. Modelling of the overall sulfation process is done in two stages. An independent model for calcination and sintering of the sorbent particles is developed in the first stage. The results obtained from the calcination and sintering model are applied to the second stage of the model to accommodate the sulfation step and provide a comprehensive model.

This research work, with its time resolved kinetic data and insights into role of pore structure on reaction kinetics, has contributed to a more thorough under-standing of short-time SC2/CaO interaction. This chapter has laid the foundation and background for harnessing the sorbent pore structure and tailoring it to develop sorbents with very high reactivity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, The Ohio University, Columbus, OH, USA

    L.-S. Fan, A. Ghosh-Dastidar, S. Mahuli & R. Agnihotri

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  1. L.-S. Fan
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  2. A. Ghosh-Dastidar
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  3. S. Mahuli
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  4. R. Agnihotri
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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Fan, LS., Ghosh-Dastidar, A., Mahuli, S., Agnihotri, R. (1998). High Temperature Desulfurization of Flue Gas Using Calcium-Based Sorbents. In: Dry Scrubbing Technologies for Flue Gas Desulfurization. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4951-2_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4951-2_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-7247-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-4951-2

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