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Mercury migration and re-emission in a simulated wet flue gas desulfurization system

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Abstract

Experiments were conducted in a simulated wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) system to investigate the effects of sulfite, slurry temperature, pH value and atmosphere on mercury migration and re-emission. The mechanisms were discussed based on the kinetics and chemical equilibrium. The results indicate that SO32− is a key factor for Hg0 re-emission in WFGD system. Increasing SO32− concentration at a relatively low level can promote Hg2+ in liquid phase reducing to gaseous Hg0, whereas Hg0 re-emission is significantly inhibited with excess SO32−. The reaction rate of mercury reduction is calculated to increase by approximately ten times when the slurry temperature rises from 40 to 60 °C. It reveals that a higher slurry temperature can accelerate mercury reduction. The proportion of mercury in liquid phase is detected to decline sharply with a drop in pH value. The mechanisms were further proposed that SO32− tends to be protonated and the stabilities of mercury–sulfite complexes are weakened at low pH value. Under both N2/O2 and O2/CO2 atmospheres, increasing O2 concentration can suppress Hg0 re-emission. However, the variation in CO2 concentrations has no impact on Hg0 re-emission. Compared with O2/CO2 atmosphere, there is more Hg0 re-emission under N2/O2 atmosphere due to the secondary release of Hg0.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51506099, 51709191, 51606130), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (YJ201659) and the State Scholarship Fund from China Scholarship Council (201906240029) for their financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering, College of Water Resource and Hydropower, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    J. Xu, J. Bao, H. Liu, J. Tang, G. **e & L. Sun

  2. Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2TU, UK

    J. Bao

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  1. J. Xu
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  2. J. Bao
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  3. H. Liu
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  4. J. Tang
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  5. G. **e
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Correspondence to J. Bao.

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Editorial responsibility: U.W. Tang.

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Xu, J., Bao, J., Liu, H. et al. Mercury migration and re-emission in a simulated wet flue gas desulfurization system. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 18, 691–702 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-020-02853-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-020-02853-3

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