Measurement of mercury in flue gas based on an aluminum matrix sorbent

The measurement of total mercury in flue gas based on an economical aluminum matrix sorbent was developed in this paper. A sorbent trap consisted of three tubes was employed to capture Hg from flue gas. Hg trapped on sorbent was transferred into solution by acid leaching and then detected by CVAAS. Hg adsorbed on sorbent was recovered completely by leaching process. The 87.7% recovery of Hg in flue gas by tube 1 and tube 2 was obtained on the equipment of coal combustion and sampling in lab. In order to evaluate the ability to recover and accurately quantify Hg(0) on the sorbent media, the analytical bias test on tube 3 spiked with Hg(0) was also performed and got the average recovery of 97.1%. Mercury measurements based on this method were conducted for three coal-fired power plants in China. The mercury in coal is distributed into bottom ash, electrostatic precipitator (ESP) ash, wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) reactant, and flue gas, and the relative distribution varied depending on factors such as the coal type and the operation conditions of plants. The mercury mass balances of three plants were also calculated which were 91.6%, 77.1%, and 118%, respectively. The reliability of this method was verified by the Ontario Hydro (OH) method either in lab or in field.