Effects of different additives on the performance of spray dryer system during incineration process

The spray dryer system was conventionally employed to remove the SOx, NOx, and HCl in the flue gas. However, the removal efficiency of acid gas in the practical incineration flue gas, which contains dust, heavy metals, and acid gas itself, was seldom mentioned in the literature. The alkaline sorbents possess large specific surface that was a main factor on the adsorption of heavy metals and acid gas. Therefore, the primary objective of this study was focused on the effect of different additives on the removal efficiency of acid gas and heavy metals (Cr, Cd and Pb). The mass and element size distribution of heavy metals in fly ash under different additives were also investigated. The results indicated that the removal efficiency of HCl in the spray dryer system was higher than 97.8%. The effects of additives on the removal efficiency of HCl, however, were undistinguished. In the desulfurization process, the highest removal efficiency was 71.3% when the additive of amorphous SiO2 was added in the spray dryer system. The removal efficiency was 66.0% with the additive of CaCl2 and 63.1% without any additives, respectively. It was also found that the spray dryer system could decrease the concentration of metal in fly ash but increase the amount of fly ash. In addition, amorphous SiO2 in the alkaline sorbent tended to increase the adsorption of heavy metal on reactant, because it could enhance the dispersion of alkaline sorbent.