Research progress and future development trend of plasma technology in the field of mercury removal from flue gas

Title : Research progress and future development trend of plasma technology in the field of mercury removal from flue gas

Abstract:

Mercury has attracted much attention due to its strong neurotoxicity and bioaccumulation characteristics. In particular, gaseous elemental mercury (Hg⁰) has become a major focus in pollution control due to its high volatility and low water solubility. Plasma removal method can effectively eliminate Hg⁰ from combustion flue gas by inducing active species, including ·O, ·OH and O₃, which has several advantages of simple and environmentally friendly process. Nevertheless, mercury removal using a single plasma technology has the disadvantages of big energy consumption, poor selectivity, and low free radical utilization, thus hindering its wide application. Compared to plasma removal technology, plasma coupling catalyst/adsorbent removal technology exhibits good development prospects owing to the obvious synergistic effect between plasma and catalyst/adsorbent, which is able to effectively overcome these shortcomings mentioned above in the plasma removal technology. Besides, plasma technology is also widely used for modifying catalysts/adsorbents to remove gaseous mercury by generating various active functional groups and sites on the catalysts/adsorbents surface, which shows considerable developing potential owing to its relatively clean and simple treatment process. In this paper, the latest development and advance of Hg⁰ capture using different plasma-based processes/technologies (mainly including plasma removal technology, plasma coupling catalysts/adsorbents removal technology and plasma-modified catalysts/adsorbents removal technology) are introduced in detail. The mercury removal performance, adsorption/catalytic materials and removal mechanism are reviewed and discussed systematically in this review. Moreover, the existing main problems and future research recommendations in this field were also commented on. This review may provide some valuable information and inspiration for developing more economically and effectively plasma-based Hg from flue gas removal technologies.

Audience Take Away Notes:

• The audience can understand the latest research advance of Hg⁰ from flue gas capture using different plasma-related removal technologies (mainly including single plasma removal technology, plasma coupling catalysts/adsorbents removal technology and plasma-modified catalysts/adsorbents removal technology).
• The audience can enrich their knowledge in the field of mercury removal and understand the mechanism of Hg⁰ removal by different plasma-related technologies.
• The audience can learn about the main problems of different plasma-related mercury removal technologies from the content of the display, and obtain future research suggestions or sources of inspiration.

Biography:

Dr. Li is a PHD student of the research group led by Professor Yangxian Liu from the School of Energy and Power Engineering at Jiangsu University in Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province, China. The main research direction is the control of coal-fired flue gas pollutants and the utilization of biomass resources. At present, Dr. Li has published 6 search papers in SCI journals.