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Content archived on 2024-05-29

Mercury capture by fly ashes

Objective

Mercury is an element of primary concern among the toxic air metals addressed in the 1990 CleanAir Act Amendments (CAAA) due to its volatility, persistence and bioaccumulation as methyl mercury in the environment and to its neurological health impacts. Mercury is often found as a trace contaminant in coal. When coal is combusted, the combination of the elevated temperature and the volatility of mercury and its compounds result in the presence of mercury in the combustion gas exhaust stream. Extensive efforts have been made over the past few years to evaluate the inventory of mercury, to characterize its behaviour and to reduce mercury emissions. However, cost-effective and efficient means of mercury removal have not been developed so far. During coal combustion, the mineral matter from coal decomposes and it is transformed into ashes.

A small fraction of these ashes remain in the boiler while the rest (fly ashes.), are carried out by the combustion gases and are later captured in particle control devices. Most of these fly ash wastes are finally disposed of on land field sites where they may produce environmental problems. Recent research has shown that certain fly ash materials have an affinity for mercury. Carbonaceous particles present in fly ashes, but also some mineral components, may be capable of retaining mercury species in different proportions depending on their characteristics and retention conditions.

The ultimate objective of this project is to study the retention of mercury compounds using coal fly ashes as sorbets. To attain this objective fly ash selection and characterization will be carried out. After that, a sequence of retention experiments will be developed using lab-scale devices in order to evaluate efficiency and retention capacity. Post-retention fly ashes will be characterised by means of different techniques to investigate the mechanism of interaction.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

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FP6-2002-MOBILITY-11
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

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ERG - Marie Curie actions-European Re-integration Grants

Coordinator

CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
EU contribution
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Total cost

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