Sorbent injection into a slipstream baghouse for mercury control: Project summary

A project led by the Energy and Environmental Research Center to test and demonstrate sorbent injection as a cost-effective mercury control technology for utilities burning lignites has shown effective mercury capture under a range of operating conditions. Screening, parametric, and long-term tests were carried out at a slipstream facility representing an electrostatic precipitator–activated carbon injection–fabric filter configuration (called a TOXECON™ in the United States). Screening tests of sorbent injection evaluated nine different sorbents, including both treated and standard activated carbon, to compare mercury capture as a function of sorbent injection rate. Parametric tests evaluated several variables including air-to-cloth (A/C) ratio, flue gas temperature, cleaning frequency, and dust loading to determine the effect on mercury control and systems operation. Long-term tests (approximately 2 months in duration) evaluated the sustainability of systems operation.     

Experimental study of chemical treatment of coal fly ash to reduce the mobility of priority trace elements

Coal fired electric power plants produce large volumes of fly ash and other coal combustion by-products (CCBs) every year. Although almost 50% of the fly ash produced in the US is recycled for beneficial use, most of the ash material is disposed in dry landfills and ash lagoon impoundments. Fly ash may contain hazardous leachable trace elements such as As, B, Cr, Mo, Ni, Se, Sr and V which have a negative impact on the environment due to potential leaching by acid rain and groundwater with time. Many of the older CCB disposal facilities are unlined and unmonitored and as a result the EPA is currently developing national standards for monitoring CCB disposal sites. The cost to the US electric power industry could exceed one billion dollars if existing and closed CCB disposal facilities come under regulation. Thus simple, low-cost and effective in situ chemical treatment techniques are needed to stabilize hazardous leachable trace elements in the coal combustion by-product (CCB) materials. This paper reports the results of experiments designed to chemically treat fly ash with ferrous sulfate solutions to immobilize hazardous leachable trace elements after disposal.The current study is focused on three acidic and one alkaline fly ash samples collected from electric power plants located in the southeastern United States that were treated with two ferrous sulfate treatment solutions. The first treatment solution contained ferrous sulfate (FS) to give 322 mg/L of dissolved iron, while the second treatment solution contained the same concentration of ferrous sulfate along with excess calcium carbonate (FS + CC) to buffer the pH. Fly ash treatment experiments were carried out at solid:liquid (S:L) ratios of 1:3 and 1:30. The effectiveness of the treatment methods was evaluated by sequentially leaching the treated and the untreated fly ash samples using a synthetic acid rain (SAR) solution (US EPA Method 1312B SPLP fluid) as the leachate. The best overall treatment result was shown by the unbuffered ferrous sulfate solution at the 1:30 S:L ratio, which substantially reduced the mobility of the oxyanion trace elements. The overall mobility reduction achieved for As was 23-72%, B mobility was reduced by 43-80%, Cr by 45-77%, Mo by 21-90%, Se by 41-85% and V by 41-53% The unbuffered ferrous sulfate treatment was not effective for immobilization of the cationic trace elements Ni and Sr.     

Arsenic interactions during co-combustion processes based on thermodynamic equilibrium calculations

Arsenic emissions are currently considered to be one of foremost importance. Arsenic volatility is higher than most of trace elements, but its vaporization behaviour is strongly dependent on the atmosphere composition. In this sense, thermodynamic equilibrium calculations, using HSC-Chemistry 5.0 software, were performed to evaluate the influence of different compounds in the distribution and mode of occurrence of arsenic in co-combustion processes. The influence of different parameters influencing arsenic behaviour, such as temperature, pressure, trace element concentration and flue gas composition on equilibrium composition were also evaluated. Predicting arsenic species, based on combustion conditions and fuel composition, will be useful to choose the best available control technology to reduce arsenic emissions. Finally, the possible interactions between arsenic and different trace elements (TE), mercury, cadmium and antimony, relevant from an environmental point of view, have also been studied; these interactions are not usually considered in thermodynamic studies; however, TE’s interactions affects the behaviour of a single TE, not only as a result of the formation of new species, but also, because of the different reactivity of TEs towards different elements which may affect TE’s volatilization behaviours. From results obtained in this study it may be concluded that in most cases, arsenic is mainly captured in ashes as a result of the formation of thermally stable species both from interactions with bulk ash and TE’s interactions. Nevertheless, the presence of some compounds (silicon, chlorine and sulphur) may enhance arsenic volatilization.     

Trace element behaviour in the Sasol-Lurgi MK IV FBDB gasifier. Part 2 - The semi-volatile elements: Cu, Mo, Ni and Zn

Gasification is a coal conversion process that could be considered to be more amenable with regards to environmental impact factors when compared to combustion, as it provides minimum direct emission to the atmosphere due to the opportunity to apply a series of gas cleaning processes. Emissions could be in the form of the well known trace elements labelled as toxic present in feed coal. Due to the minimal literature available on coal gasification when compared to coal combustion, a large amount of inference to coal combustion has been applied in discussing the partitioning behaviour of trace elements during coal utilization. Conducting mass balance calculations of trace elements around gasification processes have proven to be a challenging task. This is due to the limitation of the analytical techniques employed to quantify at the parts per million levels at which trace elements exist. The other challenge is analyzing for trace elements in all the different stream phases that occur after gasification. The availability of thermodynamic equilibrium packages i.e. Fact-Sage to perform high temperature calculations, at the same time handling all phases of material involved has simplified the challenges. Results obtained from such calculations have also proved to be close to reality, but have not been related to the fixed-bed counter-current gasification reactor operating on lump coal.The focus of this paper is to discuss more recent environmentally-focused research developments by Sasol, where trace element simulation and validation of model predictions have been undertaken for the gasification process. Fact-Sage thermodynamic equilibrium modelling was used to simulate the semi-volatile trace elements (Cu, Mo, Ni and Zn) gas phase and ash phase partitioning and speciation behaviour occurring in a fixed-bed pressurized gasifier. A Sasol-Lurgi Mark IV FBDB gasifier was mined via turn-out sampling in order to determine the trace element changes through the gasifier, results being used to validate the modelled results.The semi-volatile elements: Cu, Mo, Ni and Zn all showed limited (5% in the case of Zn) de-volatilization behaviour in the drying and pyrolysis zone of the fixed-bed gasifier. Predictions revealed that within the reduction zone of the fixed-bed gasifier that they are all highly volatile, producing gaseous species with an increase in temperature, varying in the order: Zn > Mo > Cu > Ni, which is contrary to what was found from the experimental results. This could imply that thermodynamic equilibrium conditions do not necessarily prevail in a fixed-bed gasifier operating on lump coal, since in reality mass and heat transfer limitations across coarse coal particles apply and the reactions are therefore more kinetically limited. Over-balances of Ni and Mo partitioning to the solid ash fraction, was found for the measured results. This anomaly was found to not be caused by erosion of the gasifier internals, but rather possibly be ascribed to accumulation and contamination caused by likely condensation and vaporisation of these species during the gasifier sampling campaign, as well as by the particle size reduction processes utilized prior to elemental analyses. Leaching tests conducted on the bottom ash collected from the gasifier have shown that the trace elements studied are firmly bound into the ash matrix and therefore would not be released during later disposal. The relative enrichment in trace element content observed for Ni and Mo within the gasifier should be further investigated.     

Trace elements in home-produced eggs in Belgium: Levels and spatiotemporal distribution

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead, copper and zinc in home-produced eggs, soils and kitchen waste samples of private chicken owners in Belgium, and to determine spatiotemporal differences in trace element contents in eggs. Eggs were sampled in all provinces of Belgium in autumn 2006 and spring 2007. A total number of 59 private chicken owners participated in the study. Trace elements were determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry except for mercury, which was determined by atomic absorption of mercury vapour. The mean fresh weight concentrations in eggs in autumn and spring respectively were < 8.0 and < 8.0 µg/kg for arsenic, 0.5 and < 0.5 µg/kg for cadmium, 116 and 74 µg/kg for lead, 0.43 and 0.52 mg/kg for copper, 20.3 and 19.2 mg/kg for zinc, and 3.15 and 4.44 µg/kg for mercury. Analysis of variance determined significant differences in some trace element concentrations in eggs among seasons and regions in Belgium. Average concentrations of arsenic, cadmium and mercury corresponded well with values measured in other countries, while copper and zinc concentrations were within the same order of magnitude as in other countries. Average lead concentrations were high compared to concentrations in eggs from other countries and correlated well with lead concentrations in soil, indicating that the soil is an important source. Other sources of trace elements in eggs might be home-grown vegetables and forage (grass and herbs), and indirectly, air pollution.     

浅谈气相丙烯中微量水含量测定

通过对卡尔.费休一库仑法分析气相丙烯中微量水含量的研究,探讨出影响其准确度的因素,进而制定出切实可行的对策并实施,极大提高分析的准确度,为安全生产作有效的指导。     

Sorbent extraction of rubeanic acid-metal chelates on a new adsorbent: Sepabeads SP70

A sorbent extraction procedure for lead, iron, cadmium and manganese ions on Sepabeads SP70 adsorption resin has been presented prior to their flame atomic absorption spectrometric determinations. By the passage of aqueous samples including analyte ions-rubeanic acid chelates through Sepabeads SP70 column, metal chelates adsorb quantitatively and almost all matrix elements will pass through the column to drain. The influence of potential interfering ions was also studied. The validation of the method was made though the analysis of LGC 6010 Hard drinking water, SRM 1577b Bovine liver and GBW 07603 Bush branches and leaves standard reference materials (SRM). The method was applied to the determination of analyte ions from various water, wastewater, cow meat and milk, red wine, and tobacco samples with successfully results.     

The use of multi element profiling to differentiate between cowand buffalo milk

The multi element profile of milk from 12 cows and 6 water buffaloes was investigated, to establish whether dairy products derived from the two species could be distinguished. Multi-element data were obtained using ICP-MS. Following assessment against the team’s QA/QC criteria, or where the levels were below the LOD for the procedure, 16 elements (P, S, K, Ca, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Zn, Ga, Rb, Sr, Mo, Cs and Ba) were submitted for statistical analysis. Using linear discriminant analysis (LDA) it was possible to differentiate between milk from the two species, produced under identical environmental and animal husbandry conditions, on one farm. The sources of food and water available for consumption by the animals were also analysed and the results showed that there was no correlation between the elemental composition of the dietary components and the profiles observed in the milk.