Attachment 3 capture of toxic metals by various sorbents during fluidized bed coal combustion '

This study investigated the potential of employing suitable sorbents to capture trace metallic substances during fluidized bed coal combustion. The objectives of the study were to demonstrate the capture process, identify effective sorbents, and characterize the capture efficiency. Experiments were carried out in a 25.4 mm (1") quartz fluidized bed coal combustor enclosed in an electric furnace. In an experiment, a coal sample from the DOE Coal Sample Bank or the Illinois Basin Coal Sample Bank was burned in the bed with a sorbent under various combustion conditions and the amount of metal capture by the sorbent was determined. The metals involved in the study were arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and selenium, and the sorbents tested included bauxite, zeolite and lime. The combustion conditions examined included . bed temperature, particle size, fluidization velocity (percent excess air), and sorbent bed height. In addition to the experimental investigations, potential metal-sorbent reactions were also identified through performing chemical equilibrium analyses based on the minimization of system free energy. The work is still ongoing and the detailed experimental and theoretical results will be presented at the meeting. * For presentation at the AIChE 1995 Miami Beach Annual Meeting, Environmental Applications of Fluid-Particle Systems, November 12-17, '1995.