Pd/activated carbon sorbents for mid-temperature capture of mercury from coal-derived fuel gas

Higher concentrations of Hg can be emitted from coal pyrolysis or gasification than from coal combustion, especially elemental Hg. Highly efficient Hg removal technology from coal-derived fuel gas is thus of great importance. Based on the very excellent Hg removal ability of Pd and the high adsorption abilities of activated carbon (AC) for H₂S and Hg, a series of Pd/AC sorbents was prepared by using pore volume impregnation, and their performance in capturing Hg and H₂S from coal-derived fuel gas was investigated using a laboratory-scale fixed-bed reactor. The effects of loading amount, reaction temperature and reaction atmosphere on Hg removal from coal-derived fuel gas were studied. The sorbents were characterized by N₂ adsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The results indicated that the efficiency of Hg removal increased with the increasing of Pd loading amount, but the effective utilization rate of the active component Pd decreased significantly at the same time. High temperature had a negative influence on the Hg removal. The efficiency of Hg removal in the N₂-H₂S-H₂-CO-Hg atmosphere (simulated coal gas) was higher than that in N₂-H₂S-Hg and N₂-Hg atmospheres, which showed that H₂ and CO, with their reducing capacity, could benefit promote the removal of Hg. The XPS results suggested that there were two different ways of capturing Hg over sorbents in N₂-H₂S-Hg and N₂-Hg atmospheres.