Experimental Study on the Absorption Behaviors of Gas Phase Bivalent Mercury in Ca-based Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization Slurry System

Gas phase oxidation and catalytic oxidation of element mercury (Hg(0)) to bivalent mercury (Hg(2+)) were proposed to improve the mercury removal efficiency in the wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) system. However, the re-emission of Hg(0), generated by the reduction of absorbed Hg(2+), would lead to a damping of the total mercury removal efficiency. In this paper, the absorption and reduction behaviors of bivalent mercury in the Ca-based WFGD slurry were evaluated in our purpose-built device. According to our experimental results, the slurry chemistry (such as CaSO(3) content, SO(4)(2-), Cl(-) and pH value) had a strong influence on the reduction of absorbed bivalent mercury. And the inlet concentrations of SO(2) and O(2) contribute little to the mercury absorption. Within the typical pH value range of 4.5-5.5, about 70% of inlet bivalent mercury was converted to Hg(0). The re-emission of Hg would be greatly retarded with the increase of [SO(4)(2-)] due to the formation of HgSO(4) or Hg(3)O(2)SO(4). Moreover, it was found that Cl(-) would also inhibit the reduction of bivalent mercury through the ligands reactions between Cl(-) and Hg(2+).