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Removal of mercury from flue gas using sewage sludge-based adsorbents

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Abstract

Mercury from coal-fired utility boilers, as the largest atmospheric mercury emission source, imposes serious environmental risks and health concerns. In order to explore the possibility of reducing costs of activated carbon injection, we investigated the most promising mercury control technology, Hg0 removal using ZnCl2-impregnated adsorbents derived from sewage sludge. The results demonstrated that sludge-based adsorbents (SBAs) had fairly high mercury adsorption capacity over a wide range of temperatures (80–170 °C). Oxidizing atmosphere could improve the adsorption of Hg0 and weaken the inhibition of SO2 on mercury adsorption to some extent. NO exhibited no obvious impact on mercury removal performance. In addition, to clarify whether oxygen- or chlorine-containing functional groups attributed to good mercury adsorption capacity of SBAs, the oxygen-containing functional groups were removed using Boehm’s method, and a temperature-programmed decomposition desorption experiment was conducted. The results suggest that chlorine-containing functional groups played a significant role in the removal process of mercury from flue gas using SBAs.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the Key Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 51161140330, 51076053, U1261204, 51006041). The authors would also like to thank the Analytical and Testing Center of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, for providing the facilities for the experimental measurements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Huan Liu, Bei Yuan, Bi Zhang, Hongyun Hu, Aijun Li, Guangqian Luo & Hong Yao

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  1. Huan Liu
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  2. Bei Yuan
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  3. Bi Zhang
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  4. Hongyun Hu
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  5. Aijun Li
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  6. Guangqian Luo
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  7. Hong Yao
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Correspondence to Hong Yao.

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Liu, H., Yuan, B., Zhang, B. et al. Removal of mercury from flue gas using sewage sludge-based adsorbents. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 16, 101–107 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-013-0145-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-013-0145-6

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