ELECTRO-CATALYTIC OXIDATION TECHNOLOGY APPLIED TO MERCURY AND TRACE ELEMENTS REMOVAL FROM FLUE GAS

摘要

FirstEnergy Corp. of Akron, Ohio, and Powerspan Corp. of New Durham, New Hampshire, are conducting pilot testing of a patented technology, which simultaneously removes nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO_2), fine particulate matter (PM), mercury (Hg), and other heavy metals from the exhaust gas of coal-fired power plants. The technology, developed by Powerspan, is called Electro-Catalytic OxidationT (ECO). Testing has been underway since 1998 and will continue through the end of 2001. Two megawatts of flue-gas output are treated using ECO technology. NOx emissions have been reduced by 70-80%, SO_2 emissions by 40-50%, mercury by 68-82% while most other Clean Air Act heavy metals have been reduced by over 99% as measured by EPA Method 29 analysis. Total particulate matter removal is greater than 99.9% with greater than 96% removal of particles sized at less than 3 microns. The presentation will cover basic principles of the technology and performance results from extended pilot operations. NOx, SO_2, particulate matter, mercury, other heavy metals, and air toxics removal efficiencies will be reported. In addition, an economic evaluation of ECO technology applied to coal-fired power plants and plans for a commercial demonstration unit to be operational in spring 2001 will be discussed.