The injection of activated carbon into the flue gas has been shown to mitigate the emission of mercury in all coal-fired power plants, even those with wet and dry scrubbers. This is a low-capital-cost technology in which the largest cost element is the cost of the activated carbon sorbent. Therefore, the obvious approach to further cost reductions is to reduce the amount of sorbent needed or to decrease the cost of sorbent production. This project will develop a new process for the production of sorbents that will dramatically reduce production costs and increase production capacity in both existing and new activated carbon production facilities. Phase I will define the processing parameters that produce an optimized sorbent at the lowest manufacturing cost. Sample sorbent materials will be produced in the laboratory and tested with flue gas to determine the capability for capturing mercury. Phase II will focus on scaling-up the manufacturing process and producing sufficient quantities of the sorbent for use in a full-scale mercury control test at one or more coal-fired power plants.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The target market for the sorbent is coal-fired power plants that need to control mercury emissions. In addition to the power companies themselves, electricity consumers should also benefit from lower electric rates, if the power plants were to use economical means to comply with pollution control regulations
