Activated carbon treatment of municipal solid waste incineration flue gas

Activated carbon injection is widely used to control dioxins and mercury emissions. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to its modelling. This paper proposes an expansion of the classical Everaerts-Baeyens model, introducing the expression of fraction of free adsorption sites, f (s), and asserting the significant contribution of fly ash to dioxins removal. Moreover, the model monitors dioxins partitioning between vapour and particulate phase, as well as removal efficiency for each congener separately. The effects of the principal parameters affecting adsorption are analysed according to a semi-analytical, semi-empirical model. These parameters include temperature, contact time during entrained-flow, characteristics (grain-size, pore structure, specific surface area) and dosage of activated carbon, lignite cokes or mineral adsorbent, fly ash characteristics and concentration, and type of incinerator plant.