Mercury Removal Trends and Options for Coal-Fired Power Plants with Full-Scale ESPs and Fabric Filters

摘要

In 1999 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiated an Information CollectionRequest to gather data from coal-fired generation facilities to better assess the mercurylevels processed (through burning coal), captured, and emitted from these facilities.These data, in conjunction with data available from DOE and EPRI programs, wereanalyzed to understand overall mercury capture trends in electrostatic precipitators (ESP)and fabric filters (FF) on coal-fired power plants. An initial analysis of these datashowed factors that influence mercury removal include coal type, temperature, LOI,sulfur and chlorine concentrations, and particulate control device (PCD).Since the initial analysis, additional data on mercury control technology have beendeveloped from pilot-scale and full-scale DOE/NETL and EPRI test programs. Theseresults are being integrated with the earlier ICR results to determine the applicability ofmercury control technologies, such as activated carbon injection, to all coals and PCDconfigurations.This paper presents an updated analysis of mercury removal trends with and withoutactivated carbon injection. Various particulate control device and fuel typecombinations, including the low-mercury-removal configurations of western coals withspray dryers and lignite coal applications, are examined.