Multi-Billion Dollar/Yr. Market to Reduce Mercury in Air and Gas

Mercury reduction is the biggest growth market in air pollution control.  Very small quantities of mercury emitted to the air end up in the water and then in humans where serious health problems can result.  A few ppb in natural gas pipelines accelerate deterioration of equipment and the pipe.

Regulations to limit these pollutants are still evolving.  The U.S. has led the way in coal-fired power.  This creates an opportunity for U.S. based suppliers to market their solutions to the international market.  It is easy to take a myopic view of one industry and make strategy decisions.   However, if one considers potential cross pollination among industries and geographies, a whole different picture arises. The U.S. is not the leader in cement, waste-to-energy, natural gas or non-ferrous applications.  It is a co-leader in sewage sludge incineration.  The leading technologies vary industry to industry. There is the potential for major technology changes based on technologies developed for another industry.

The relevant market and technical information for all the industries is included in:

N056 Mercury Air Reduction Market.  The technical information is included in the following knowledge systems:

1ABC Fabric Filter

2ABC Scrubber/Adsorber/Biofilter Knowledge Systems

3ABC FGD and DeNOx Knowledge Systems

4ABC Electrostatic Precipitator Knowledge Systems

9ABC Air Pollution Monitoring and Sampling Knowledge Systems

These knowledge systems contain decision slide decks to help six different industries select the best solutions for their mercury problem. Cross pollination efforts by McIlvaine have the potential to broaden the available options.  One of the biggest potentials is for coal-fired power to benefit from the WTE and non-ferrous industry experience. 

The potential use of the WTE acid loop by the power industry is transformative.  The coal-fired power plant would become a chemicals complex with production of rare earths, precious metals, hydrochloric acid, gypsum or sulfur and flyash.  The WTE experience plus the Chinese and U.S. initiatives for extraction of rare earths from flyash can lead the way to the power/chemicals complex.

A webinar on February 11 will discuss the technical options.  Learn more at:

Click here to Register for the Webinars

Rapid Changes in the DeNO_x Market

The market to reduce NO_x from stationary and mobile sources is changing rapidly due to two factors:  regulations and innovations.  More stringent regulations in one country have a cascade effect resulting in increased stringency in many countries. Innovations in one industry eventually lead to incorporation in other industries but the pace at which this occurs is too slow. It is, therefore, necessary to take a worldwide holistic approach to NO_x reduction.

Regulations

China is the most recent country to embrace NO_x control for stationary sources.  A $20 billion investment has been made in adding selective catalytic reduction (SCR) to most coal-fired power plants.   Some sort of NO_x reduction device is now common for waste incineration and cement plants.  Gas turbines in the U.S. are held to such low emissions that they must install SCR.  Europe is considering equally stringent levels but presently is more lenient.

The most widely publicized regulatory dispute involves mobile sources.  Diesel powered vehicles in motion are found to emit much more NO_x than had been predicted through stationary measurements.  As a result, the market for SCR for mobile sources will rise at double-digit rates over the next few years.

Innovations

The ability to add DeNO_x capability to particulate filters promises to greatly reduce capital cost.  Several companies are offering lower temperature (350°F) combinations.  Others offer combinations which operate at 850°F.  Acid gas removal can also be achieved, so that one device is removing three pollutants.  Glass, biomass and incineration plants have added these 3 in 1 filters.  The coal-fired power industry needs to evaluate this success and determine if the technology is entirely transferrable.

The refinery industry has successfully used ozone generators combined with wet scrubbers to meet its DeNO_x requirements.  At the very least other industries should consider this technology as potentially complimentary to SCR.

The use of hydrogen peroxide in combination with scrubbers is another successful approach but one so far not widely used.

The cross pollination is highest for suppliers of reagents and catalysts.  Johnson Matthey is supplying both stationary and mobile catalysts.  Yara is supplying the urea and ammonia for all the applications.  Delivery is straightforward for the large stationary applications.  However, for AdBlue, the water, urea mix for diesel vehicles, the needs are for large numbers of delivery points with small quantities.

McIlvaine is facilitating the cross pollination in multiple ways.  A webinar is scheduled for March 24, in which technology in coal-fired power generation, cement manufacturing, waste-to-energy, steel and diesel vehicles will be shared. There is no charge to participate. Click Here to Register

The decision guides and recordings of discussions are displayed in the FGD & DeNOx Knowledge System.  Information on this service is shown at:  3ABC FGD and DeNOx Knowledge Systems.

This information is also included in the market report N035 NOx Control World Market.

Innovations Changing the Industrial Scrubber Industry

End users and suppliers are both challenged to keep up with the rapid developments in particulate scrubbing, gas absorption, gas adsorption, dry scrubbing, condensation separation and biofiltration in industrial processes such as iron and steel, cement, waste-to-energy, natural gas treatment and sewage sludge incineration (scrubbers in coal-fired power are analyzed separately).

The drivers behind this rapid pace are regulations and innovations. The regulations in one country soon are copied in others.  The innovations in one industry are eventually embraced by other industries but not as quickly as they should be.  It is highly desirable to continually determine how the successes in one application can be applied to others.

Regulations:

Foundry cupolas, BOF furnaces, and waste-to-energy plants can no longer rely on particulate scrubbers to meet the stringent emission standards.  Instead fabric filters are the leading choice.  This has led to the development of dry scrubbers which can be used in combination with fabric filters.  So the dry scrubber segment has grown robustly while the particulate scrubber segment has stagnated.

However, even newer regulations identifying condensibles as a component of total particulate has opened the door to the wet approach.  Regulations addressing liquid and solid waste have favored dry scrubbing.  However, some new wet approaches resulting in usable byproducts have caused growth in the wet scrubbing segment.

Condensation scrubbing is a growing segment thanks to the concern with greenhouse gases and the potential for extracting heat from exhaust gases.

Innovations:

The air pollution control systems in waste-to-energy plants in Europe incorporate a number of innovations.  Four stages of scrubbing result in hydrochloric acid, gypsum, precious metals, salable ash and capture of the exhaust gas heat.

The development of highly reactive lime particles coupled with catalytic filters allow acid gas, NO_x and particulate removal at 850°F.  The heat from the clean gas is then easily extracted.  Glass furnaces, biomass combustors and other sources have embraced this technology.

There are innovative ways to remove mercury.  The non-ferrous smelting industry is using unique chemistry in wet absorbers.  A number of sewage sludge incinerator operators in the U.S. have incorporated mercury adsorber modules into their scrubbers.  The modules can handle the wet gas leaving the mist eliminators.

Membrane contactors are proving to be an improvement for separating gases such as CO₂ and H₂S.

The cutting edge technology is ionic liquids being used in mercury removal from natural gas.  This promises to have wider application for pollutant removal in many combustion sources.

A gas bubble encapsulation technology is still in the pilot stage but the conversion of the gas stream into bubbles one-thirtieth of one inch in diameter creates mass transfer surfaces thousands of times greater than packed towers on plate columns. The problem is the physical separation of the gas and liquid components after the absorption takes place.  The company which solves this problem will change not only pollution control but many chemical processes.

The venturi scrubber which has been rejected for particulate scrubbing, may find a revival as a critical component of rare earth recovery from flyash.  It can capture both HCl and particulate and start the leaching process of the rare earths all in one step.  Additional particulate removal then takes place in wet precipitators.

McIlvaine is conducting cross pollination webinars.  Decision guides in a number of industries are displayed and discussions regarding wider use of innovations encouraged. These discussions are free to everyone.  The decision guides are included in the following two services:

2ABC Scrubber/Adsorber/Biofilter Knowledge Systems

N008 Scrubber/Adsorber/Biofilter World Markets

Which Subjects should be discussed in the Mercury Hot Topic Hour (HTH) February 11?

There are lots of questions about how to meet mercury emission limits in various industries and countries.  Answers to these questions will be continually addressed in a new McIlvaine Program including a Hot Topic Hour (HTH) discussion on February 11.  The details on the program are explained below along with the specific issues and options we plan to discuss. We encourage your input in advance to add additional questions and to provide answers.

Our Decisions HTH on Mercury, DeNO_x and Hot Gas Filtration will be based on decision slide decks which will be continually updated prior to and subsequent to the webinar.  End users and subscribers have free access to the online slide decks.  It is all explained at Hot Topic Hour Schedule and Recordings on the McIlvaine Company website.

The Mercury HTH will focus on questions from end users as well as discussions about the merits of various approaches.  One of the biggest contributions will be to provide cross pollination between industries.  The sewage sludge incinerator plants in the U.S. and the waste-to-energy plants in Europe have some cutting edge technologies which need to be evaluated for use in other industries.

Here is the McIlvaine view of the status and potential of the technologies for the various industries:

E = experience P = potential                                           H = high, M = medium, L= low,   U = unknown

Are the experience and potential ratings for the various technologies accurate?  If you think otherwise you can say so during the session or better yet—send us some support data in advance.

Each application has technology which may prove valuable for one or more of the other applications.  For example, the ionic liquids are a new approach being used in natural gas mercury removal. The pilot systems show advantages over carbon pellets.  Sewage sludge incinerators use carbon pellets and Gore modules. 

Which industries should consider ionic liquids and Gore modules as an alternative to the present approach?

Sewage sludge incinerator operators have selected absorber modules instead of carbon pellets for more than a dozen installations.  Coal-fired power plants are also using adsorber modules as one of the approaches.  Sharing of information on both applications will be beneficial.

Non-ferrous smelters are using metal filters but are also using scrubbers with unique liquids. The Boliden-Norzink process involves the following three steps. First, mercury scrubbing occurs in the reaction tower. The reaction tower is a counter-current absorber tower made of fiber glass reinforced polypropylene plastic. In the reaction tower, the HgCl₂ solution is sprayed evenly in the packing area and reacts with mercury in the flue gas. The second step involves the production of the calomel mercurous chloride (Hg₂Cl₂), which is suspended in solution.  Some of the Hg₂Cl₂ is also sent to chloride process. During the final step, the Hg₂Cl₂ is oxidized by Cl₂ in the stirring tank.

The extensive use of chlorine in solution has been implemented in waste incineration in Europe. Many waste-to-energy plants have multi stage scrubbers with the first stage being used to make salable 30 percent hydrochloric acid. 

What happens to the mercury in this first stage scrubber?

Is the knowledge gained by the non-ferrous industry of use to WTE operators?

The potential use of the WTE acid loop by the power industry is transformative.  The coal-fired power plant would become a chemicals complex with production of rare earths, precious metals, hydrochloric acid, gypsum or sulfur and flyash.  The WTE experience plus the Chinese and U.S. initiatives for extraction of rare earths from flyash can lead the way to the power/chemicals complex.

McIlvaine believes that the acid loop is transformative.  What do you think?  Is there any reason in situ leaching is not vastly superior to the approaches by the Chinese government and the U.S. DOE?

There are lots of monitoring related questions.

Where do you use sorbent traps and where do you use CEMS and shouldn’t you use both?

Is the answer different for each of the industries?

How much mercury is escaping in the particulate form?

Should you use one CEM and two sample ports or two CEMS to analyze both inlet and outlet mercury?

One of the experts displays slides showing that CEMS are less expensive than sorbent traps for life cycles longer than two or three years. Do you agree?

There are lots of questions about the addition of chemicals.

If bromine is used with the coal: 

·       Is the corrosion worry just with section 45 installations?

·       Is 75 ppm of bromine safe but 150 ppm risky?

·       What about Mitagent or other chemicals to reduce corrosion potential?

·       Where should halogens be injected?

What about preventing re-emissions from the scrubber.

How much additional mercury capture is achieved with chemicals added in the scrubber loop?

Is activated carbon a viable choice for the recirculating scrubber loop?

The choice of activated carbons is important.  We need to explore the differences between one carbon and another and also to determine where and when activated carbon should be injected.

How much performance improvement has been made by activated carbon manufacturers?

What removal efficiency and what will be the cost for activated carbon if I just have a precipitator?

If I have a dry scrubber, how much efficiency reduction is possible from SO₃ interference and can I inject sorbent ahead of the air heater to eliminate this potential?

How much selenium will be captured with AC?

What about concrete friendly AC and the impact on the sales of flyash?

If I operate with dry sorbent injection, do I add the AC prior to or with the sorbent?

Mercury and NO_x control variables.  The decisions on NOx control effect the mercury reduction choices.

How much mercury oxidation is achieved in so called standard catalysts vs. the newer offerings which balance NO_x reduction, SO₂ conversion to SO₃ and mercury oxidation?

Regulatory issues and questions abound.

If I emit particulate mercury but don’t report it since I am using CEMS which measures gaseous emissions as required, do I have any liability?

Will China more broadly pursue the Near Zero Emissions (NZE) goals with mercury limits similar to the U.S. or will this just be a demonstration in certain cities and provinces?

Will the true cost initiative which shows that mercury and fine particulate are major costs in producing cement in China lead to mercury controls for this industry?

Since one major Chinese cement company is also the world leader in co-combustion of sewage sludge, will there be more extensive mercury controls on his plants?

How many countries require CEMS for mercury emissions from waste-to-energy plants?

Each of the six decision slide decks will be revised until February 10.  McIlvaine will be at EUEC this week where many of the suppliers of mercury removal products will be exhibiting or speaking. McIlvaine has a stand.  Also you can meet with Bob McIlvaine by contacting him in advance at mobile #847 226 2391.

Utility E-Alert Tracks Billions of Dollars of New Coal-fired Power Plants on a Weekly Basis

Here are some headlines from the Utility E-Alert.

UTILITY E-ALERT

#1256 – January 22, 2016

Table of Contents

COAL – WORLD

§  Proposed Cadiz City 300 MW Coal-fired Power Station

§  Coal-fired Power Station under development in Davao Occidental Province, Philippines

§  Nam Dinh Thermal Power Plant Pact signed in Ha Noi

§  Krishnapatnam Power to build Thermal Power Projects worth Rs. 16,680 Crore in Andhra Pradesh

§  China to further cut Coal Capacity

The 41F Utility E-Alert is issued weekly and covers the coal-fired projects, regulations and other information important to the suppliers. It is $950/yr. but is included in the $3020 42EI Utility Tracking System which has data on every plant and project plus networking directories and many other features.

 McIlvaine Hot Topic Hours (HTH) and Recordings

     Explanation          Applicable Services         Schedule & Registration       Sponsored Webinars 

McIlvaine conducts periodic webinars which are in a discussion format and are free of charge to all participants. The displayed material and recordings are free to purchasers of the products and services and by subscription to others.

Format:  50-90 minute recorded discussion using McIlvaine display material. The session will be free of charge to all participants but registration is required.

Approach: There are two types of webinars. One is focused on Markets and directed to suppliers. The other is focused on aiding purchasers make the best Decisions relative to purchases of flow control and treatment equipment and services.

Markets HTH
The general overviews of the market including size and major variables will be discussed with heavy emphasis on technology and regulatory drivers.  The presentation will be based on the latest information appearing in McIlvaine multi-client reports. Questions and views from both subscribers and non-subscribers are encouraged.

Decisions HTH
McIlvaine has been publishing information systems on pollution control since 1974.  Each subject is organized by the pollutant control technology e.g. fabric filter, scrubber, etc. There are search capabilities to retrieve information on any application.  The newest addition has been slide deck systems displaying the issues and options relative to a specific applications.  Coal-fired power, cement, steel and waste combustion decision slide decks are continually updated.

The continually updated slide decks are displayed on the applicable decision system.  It is recommended that participants view the slide deck in advance of the session and be prepared with questions and views.

Value to purchasers and specifiers:  Your questions and interests will be prioritized in the discussion. You will get a monthly newsletter and have continuing access to the system and multiple ways to interface in the future along with a networking directory of suppliers.

Value to Suppliers:  You have the opportunity to provide data to be considered at no charge. If you are also a subscriber you will see the summaries in advance and be able to shed light on issues and options not properly covered in the slide deck.  If you are a subscriber you will receive the monthly newsletter and continuing yearly access to the system including networking directories.

44I Power Plant Air Quality Decisions  includes 1ABC, 3ABC, 4ABC, 9ABC decision services but not 2ABC. So those with multiple technologies and at least partial focus on power will find this combination most cost effective.

HOT TOPIC HOUR (HTH) SCHEDULE

Dates for the next 6 meetings are firm; the others will be held in sequence at approximately two week intervals.  Unforeseen developments could dictate the insertion of new subjects.

Click here to Register for the Webinars

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You can register for our free McIlvaine Newsletters at: http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php?option=com_rsform&formId=5.

Bob McIlvaine

President
847-784-0012 ext. 112
rmcilvaine@mcilvainecompany.com
www.mcilvainecompany.com