Mercury Emissions during Cofiring of Sub-bituminous Coal and Biomass (Chicken Waste, Wood, Coffee Residue, and Tobacco Stalk) in a Laboratory-Scale Fluidized Bed Combustor

Abstract

Four types of biomass (chicken waste, wood pellets, coffee residue, and tobacco stalks) were cofired at 30 wt % with a U.S. sub-bituminous coal (Powder River Basin Coal) in a laboratory-scale fluidized bed combustor. A cyclone, followed by a quartz filter, was used for fly ash removal during tests. The temperatures of the cyclone and filter were controlled at 250 and 150 degrees C, respectively. Mercury speciation and emissions during cofiring were investigated using a semicontinuous mercury monitor, which was certified using ASTM standard Ontario Hydra Method. Test results indicated mercury emissions were strongly correlative to the gaseous chlorine concentrations, but not necessarily correlative to the chlorine contents in cofiring fuels. Mercury emissions could be reduced by 35% during firing of sub-bituminous coal using only a quartz filter. Cofiring high-chlorine fuel, such as chicken waste (Cl = 22340 wppm), could largely reduce mercury emissions by over 80%. When low-chlorine biomass, such as wood pellets (Cl = 132 wppm) and coffee residue (Cl = 134 wppm), is cofired, mercury emissions could only be reduced by about 50%. Cofiring tobacco stalks with higher chlorine content (Cl = 4237 wppm) did not significantly reduce mercury emissions. This was also true when limestone was added while cofiring coal and chicken waste because the gaseous chlorine was reduced in the freeboard of the fluidized bed combustor, where the temperature was generally below 650 degrees C without addition of the secondary air. Gaseous speciated mercury in flue gas after a quartz filter indicated the occurrence of about 50% of total gaseous mercury to be the elemental mercury for cofiring chicken waste, but occurrence of above 90% of the elemental mercury for all other cases. Both the higher content of alkali metal oxides or alkali earth metal oxides in tested biomass and the occurrence of temperatures lower than 650 degrees C in the upper part of the fluidized bed combustor seemed to be responsible for the reduction of gaseous chlorine and, consequently, limited mercury emissions reduction during cofiring. This study identified the important impacts of temperature profile and oxides of alkali metal (alkali earth metal) on mercury emissions during cofiring in the fluidized bed combustor.

Characteristics of PM2.5 emitted from different cooking activities in China

“…Se and As have been defined as the markers of coal combustion (Galbreath and Zygarlicke, 2004;Reff et al, 2009), which was consistent with the only fuel used on the snack street. In addition, United States emission inventories of PM 2.5 trace elements revealed that coal combustion is the largest source of Hg (Cao et al, 2008;Reff et al, 2009). This explains that Hg was detected in the snack-street boiling only.…”

ReEngineered Feedstocks for Pulverized Coal Combustion Emissions Control

“…To demonstrate the effectiveness of ReEF co-feeding with coal, a fluidized bed combustion (FBC) reactor − was constructed, as shown in Figure schematic of the reactor and analytical system. A 5.0 cm outer-diameter alumina tube (99.8%, CoorsTek Inc.) was the main reactor inside a high temperature furnace, which can withstand temperatures up to 1650 °C.…”

Fluidized bed waste incinerators: Design, operational and environmental issues

“…heating value and moisture content), in order to reach high combustion efficiency and steady combustion characteristics [60][61]. A large number of papers discuss the co-incineration of MSW, RDF or biomass in existing coal fired FBCs for energy production [55,60,57,[62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76]. One of the advantages of this form of co-incineration is that the waste can be energetically valorized without high investment costs.…”

“…One of the advantages of this form of co-incineration is that the waste can be energetically valorized without high investment costs. Furthermore, as the carbon in MSW, RDF and biomass is up to 100% of biogenic origin, the net CO2 emission per unit of energy produced decreases compared to coal combustion [57,59,61,63,66,69,73]. Due to the different composition and combustion characteristics of MSW, RDF or biomass and coal (Table 4), the emission of certain pollutants during co-combustion can change significantly compared to pure coal combustion [77,64,60,69,72,[75][76].…”

“…Results from different lab scale experiments [63,70,146] suggest that at sufficient residence times and at temperatures below 300°C, as in e.g. the ash collection devices, SO2 adsorbed on the ash particles can generate SO3 and H2SO4, leading to formation of HgSO4, which is chemically adsorbed.…”