Separation of Mercury from Flue Gas Desulfurization Scrubber Produced Gypsum

Frontier Geosciences (Frontier; FGS) proposed for DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-07ER84669 that mercury control could be achieved in a wet scrubber by the addition of an amendment to the wet-FGD scrubber. To demonstrate this, a bench-scale scrubber and synthetic flue-gas supply was designed to simulate the limestone fed, wet-desulfurization units utilized by coal-fired power plants. Frontier maintains that the mercury released from these utilities can be controlled and reduced by modifying the existing equipment at installations where wet flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) systems are employed. A key element of the proposal was FGS-PWN, a liquid-based mercury chelating agent, which can be employed as the amendment for removal of all mercury species which enter the wet-FGD scrubber. However, the equipment design presented in the proposal was inadequate to demonstrate these functions and no significant progress was made to substantiate these claims. As a result, funding for a Phase II continuation of this work will not be pursued. The key to implementing the technology as described in the proposal and report appears to be a high liquid-to-gas ratio (L/G) between the flue-gas and the scrubber liquor, a requirement not currently implemented in existing wet-FGD designs. It may be that this constraint can be reducedmore » through parametric studies, but that was not apparent in this work. Unfortunately, the bench-scale system constructed for this project did not function as intended and the funds and time requested were exhausted before the separation studies could occur.« less