Treatment of mercury-contg. waste material - uses heat to produce mercury@ vapour and sulphur-contg. carbon@ filter to collect mercury@

摘要

Means for sepg. Hg from Hg contg. waste materials whereby the waste materials are fed, pref. in granular form, from a storage container (1) through an inlet (6) into an enclosed screw or rotating transporter (2). The material is then heated, pref. by air at 250-350 deg.C from a heater (29) entering the transporter through inlet (9), producing Hg vapour. The Hg vapour/air mixt. is extracted via outlet (7) and, after filtration of any dust or particulate material and cooling, passed through a filter system (15,16), incorporating pref. a S-contg. activated C filter arrangement, where the Hg is collected. The extracted air is recirculated to the heater (29). The essentially Hg-free waste material exits the transporter (2) via outlet (8) and is cooled in a cooling screw (18) by means of air or water in conjunction with a heat exchanger (19). The waste material is collected in suitable vessels (20). The material remains in the transporter (2) for pref. 6-15 mins. giving a throughput of 200 kg/hour.