Removal of mercury from flue gases (especially from coal - fired plants) continues to be a challenging task due to numerous factors. Firstly, the amount, chemical and physical forms of mercury in flue gases vary greatly within different plants, and depend on numerous factors making it impossible for there to be one solution or control technology which can be applied to all power plants and other coal burning facilities. Secondly, while conventional air pollution control devices can help to reduce oxidized and particulate bounded mercury they are usually inefficient in capturing its elemental form, which is very volatile and water insoluble, and requires specific technologies to be removed. Among these, sorbents are most commonly chosen solutions, although the use of existing commercial sorbents, whether via injections or as fixed beds, are not without problems. First of all, they are frequently deactivated by flu gas components and high temperatures, which reduce their efficiencies and means that the huge amounts of material must be used. They can also contaminate fly ash which not only prevents its subsequent sale, but also creates an additional problem of disposing it as hazardous waste. In addition most of the sorbents cannot be regenerated, so their total capital and operational costs are high. Therefore the search for new improved mercury sorbents is an important and active area of research, especially in the context of a new United Nation's convention on reduction of mercury emissions and exposure on a global scale. This study presents data on novel mercury sorbents: co-precipitated manganese oxides and synthetic zeolites derived from coal fly ash, and an evaluation of their suitability as alternative materials to currently commercially available.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:663235 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Wiatros-Motyka, Malgorzata |
| Publisher | University of Nottingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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