Fly Ash Mercury Sorbent Injection System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Coal-fired power plants face high costs and inefficiencies in removing mercury from flue gas using conventional activated carbon sorbents, which also fail to effectively reuse fly ash.
Innovation Solution
A mercury removal system that monitors flue gas mercury concentration, collects fly ash, modifies it into a sorbent, and injects it back into the flue gas to adsorb mercury, eliminating the need for expensive activated carbon and reducing transportation costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If activated carbon is used as sorbent to remove mercury from flue gas, then mercury removal efficiency is improved, but operational cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the chemical parameters of fly ash by adding modifiers (such as calcium oxide, magnesium oxide, or other chemical agents) to transform ordinary fly ash into an effective mercury sorbent. This parameter modification enables the sorbent to achieve high mercury removal efficiency while using a low-cost material base, thereby resolving the contradiction between removal efficiency and operational cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces expensive activated carbon with inexpensive fly ash-based sorbent. Although the sorbent may have shorter service life or lower inherent performance than activated carbon, the extreme cost advantage of using fly ash (a waste product) instead of purchased activated carbon resolves the economic contradiction, making the system more cost-effective for continuous operation.
2Reliability
If activated carbon is injected for mercury adsorption, then mercury removal is achieved, but fly ash reuse is prevented
Solution Approach 1:
The invention enables fly ash to serve dual purposes: first as a waste product to be removed from the electrostatic precipitator, and then as a valuable resource to be processed into mercury sorbent. The system transforms fly ash's role from单纯的 waste disposal target to an active functional material, allowing the power plant to utilize its own waste product for pollution control, thereby resolving the contradiction between mercury removal and fly ash reuse.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of simply discarding fly ash from the electrostatic precipitator, the invention recovers and reprocesses it into a functional sorbent material. This recovery process transforms waste into value, enabling both effective mercury removal and beneficial fly ash utilization, thus resolving the contradiction between removing mercury and preventing fly ash reuse.
3Reliability
If conventional adsorption technology is applied, then mercury removal is effective, but transportation cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention makes the power plant self-sufficient by producing its own mercury sorbent from internally generated fly ash. This eliminates the need to import external sorbent materials and their associated transportation costs, while maintaining effective mercury removal capability. The system serves itself by converting its waste product into the functional material needed for pollution control.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the valuable sorbent-making components from the waste fly ash through chemical modification processes. By extracting and transforming the active components of fly ash into effective mercury sorbent, the system eliminates dependency on external sorbent suppliers and their transportation networks, thereby resolving the contradiction between effective mercury removal and transportation cost reduction.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This system effectively reduces mercury pollution in coal-fired power plant flue gas by utilizing locally prepared sorbents from fly ash, thereby lowering operational costs and enhancing mercury removal efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
a sorbent injector configured to inject the mercury sorbent into flues of the coal-fired power plant so as to mix and contact with the flue gas in the flue and adsorb the elemental mercury in the flue gas
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosure provides a mercury removal system for a coal-fired power plant comprising: a mercury content monitoring system configured to monitor a mercury concentration in flue gas; a fly ash collecting device configured to collect fly ash from an electrostatic precipitator in the coal-fired power plant; a modifying device configured to be supplied with the collected fly ash and prepare a mercury sorbent from the fly ash; a sorbent injector configured to inject the mercury sorbent into flues of the coal-fired power plant so as to mix and contact with the flue gas in the flue and adsorb the elemental mercury in the flue gas. Thus, the concentration of the mercury pollutant emission is decreased.