Mercury Control SciFi or State-of-the-Art Technology?
(Room G109, Auditorium Centre, First Floor)
11 Jun 15
9:00 AM
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10:30 AM
Tracks:
Theme: Coal's Cleaner Future
Speaker(s):
Harald Reissner, Head of Process Technology , Andritz Energy & Environment; Tom De Latte, Communication Officer, European Association for Storage of Energy; Michael Kramer, Process Engineer, ANDRITZ Energy & Environment GmbH; Stephane Crevecoeur, Market Manager Flue Gas Cleaning, Carmeuse; Bernd Vollmer, Head of Process Engineering and Design AQCS , Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe GmbH; Markus Michel; Frank Oberheid; Reijo Kuivalainen, Principal Research Manager, Foster Wheeler Energia OY
Authors: Harald Reissner (EPPSA), Michael Kramer (Andritz), Reijo Kuivailainen (Foster Wheeler), Stephane Crevecoeur (Carmeuse), Bernd Vollmer (Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe), Markus Michel (Alstom) and Frank Oberheid (Doosan Lentjes)
The primary emission sources for mercury are (1) the extraction of noble metals, (2) the cement industry, (3) the production of chlorine and – responsible for ~50% of the total Hg emissions - (4) the generation of electricity from coal. Although coal contains only traces of mercury (on average ~0.2 mg/kg dry solids), the size of the volumes leads to the release of a considerable quantity of mercury. As the environmental relevance of reducing mercury emissions is widely acknowledged, the limit values for mercury emissions have been strengthened in recent years. In the European Union, mercury, along with other pollutants, has been classified as a priority substance. This means that the individual member states are required to cease or phase-out the emissions, discharges, and losses of these hazardous priority substances and to progressively reduce the pollution caused by them.
Because of this, legislators are increasingly focussing on electricity generation from coal. Whereas Europe – with the exception of the Netherlands, with limit values of 3 µg/Nm³ and below – has relatively moderate limit values, the Mercury Air Toxics Standards of the USA limit the mercury emissions from existing (bituminous coal) plants to 1.2 lb/TBtu – i.e. 1.5 µg/Nm³ taking a 30-day rolling average. As the American limits are even lower for new plants, this requires a removal efficiency of around 90% (depending on the Hg content of the coal).
The aim of this paper is to outline – and compare the OPEX and CAPEX costs of - those technologically and economically feasible solutions that will allow coal fired power plants to comply with regulations on mercury emissions.