PILOT TESTING OF MERCURY OXIDATION CATALYSTS FOR UPSTREAM OF WET FGD SYSTEMS

This document summarizes progress on Cooperative Agreement DE-FC26-01NT41185, ''Pilot Testing of Mercury Oxidation Catalysts for Upstream of Wet FGD Systems,'' during the time period January 1, 2003 through March 31, 2003. The objective of this project is to demonstrate at pilot scale the use of solid honeycomb catalysts to promote the oxidation of elemental mercury in the flue gas from coal combustion. The project is being funded by the U.S. DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory under Cooperative Agreement DE-FC26-01NT41185. EPRI, Great River Energy (GRE), and City Public Service (CPS) of San Antonio are project cofunders. URS Group is the prime contractor. The mercury control process under development uses catalyst materials applied to honeycomb substrates to promote the oxidation of elemental mercury in the flue gas from coal-fired power plants that have wet lime or limestone flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems. Oxidized mercury is removed in the wet FGD absorbers and co-precipitates with the byproducts from the FGD system. The current project is testing previously identified, effective catalyst materials at a larger, pilot scale and in a commercial form, to provide engineering data for future full-scale designs. The pilot-scale tests will continue for up to 14 months at each of two sites to provide longer-term catalyst life data. This is the sixth full reporting period for the subject Cooperative Agreement. During this period, project efforts included continued operation of the pilot unit with three catalysts, conducting catalyst activity measurements, and procuring the fourth catalyst, all for the GRE Coal Creek pilot unit site. Laboratory efforts were also conducted to support catalyst selection for the second pilot unit site, at CPS' Spruce Plant. This technical progress report provides an update on these efforts