The Methods and Stands for Testing Fixed Sorbent and Sorbent Polymer Composite Materials for the Removal of Mercury from Flue Gases

Abstract

The most common methods of reducing mercury emissions are the use of fixed bed granular sorbents and sorbent injection. However, both of these methods have disadvantages, such as increasing the flow resistance or the need to remove the sorbent from flue gas, respectively. These disadvantages can be eliminated by using sorbents permanently bound to construction materials (fixed sorbent materials—FSMs) or mixed with construction materials (sorbent polymer composites—SPCs). The approach is unique in the world literature as well as the development of three stands and procedures enabling the testing of FSMs or SPC materials based on Tarflen as a construction material. In order to further tests of FSMs and SPCs, the system for laboratory tests and two systems for industrial tests are developed. These stands and procedures enable determination of the influence of: FSM or SPC module shapes, flue gas properties (e.g., composition, temperature, flow rate), and mercury concentration on the effectiveness of mercury removal by SPCs and FSMs. In this paper, the influence of module shapes, gas velocity, and temperature is particularly considered. In the final industrial tests, the FSM removes 99.5% Hg after 42 days and the SPC removes from 99.5% to 82.3% after 34 days.