Analysis of gas-phase mercury sorption with coke and lignite dust

Abstract

In recent years the problem of mercury emission became a widely discussed topic. Its high impact is caused by its toxicity and ability to accumulate in living organisms, properties that justified the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to classify mercury as hazardous pollutant. The problem of mercury emission is crucial for countries like Poland, where the most of the emission is caused by coaldepended energy sector. Current technology of mercury removal utilizes adsorption of mercury on the surface of activated carbon. Due to high price of activated carbon, this technological approach seems to be uneconomical and calls for cheaper alternative. One possible solution can be usage of other sorptive materials obtained from thermal processes like coke production. Example of such material is coke dust obtained from dry quenching of coke. The aim of this work was to analyse the sorption potential of lignite and coke dust and determine parameters influencing mercury behaviour during combustion.