The development of mercury control options has become a near-term need for the U.S. electric power industry. In December 2000, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided that regulation of mercury from coal-fired electric utility steam-generating units is appropriate and necessary under Section 112 of the Clean Air Act. EPA is scheduled to propose regulations by December 2003 and promulgate them by 2004, with full enforcement by 2007. This paper discusses sorbent development work performed at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) for development of mercury control strategies. The EERC has been developing and evaluating mercury chemistry, measurement techniques, transformations, sorbents, and control technologies for many years through its Center for Air Toxic Metals and multiple projects performed with the U.S. Department of Energy and industry. This paper describes the most recent equipment and techniques used by the EERC in sorbent evaluations and summarizes sorbent performance results for carbon-and non-carbon-based sorbents as well as the interactions with fiue gas constituents. Sorbent injection upstream of a particulate control device is one of the most attractive options under development, since the technology is applicable to nearly all coal-fired power plants. A thorough understanding of mercury sorbancy and interactions with the fiue gas and fiy ash constituents is necessary in order to be able to account for the application-specific nature of mercury control. The goal is to attain mercury control with existing air pollution control equipment and minimal sorbent injection in order to minimize control costs.
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