12-6-13 - Free

Application of U.S. Mercury Control Technology in Other Countries - Hot Topic Hour Yesterday

The thesis that now is the time for the U.S. to promote its mercury control technologies to the rest of the world was made by Bob McIlvaine and supported by data which is displayed in the linked presentation and recording. Four aspects were covered:

The U.S. coal-fired capacity is going from 0.3 GW to 0.25 GW over the next five years whereas the world capacity is increasing from 2.0 to 2.4 GW. So the opportunity in mercury control is 10 times larger worldwide in the utility power sector. Industrial boilers in China use as much coal as utility boilers in the U.S. China produces 60 percent of the world’s cement compared to 3 percent in the U.S.

Global anthropogenic mercury emissions are in excess of 1500 tons. Asia accounts for 75 percent of the total.

In China, the smelting industry, including lead and zinc smelters, are the largest mercury emitters.

Most developed countries control mercury from waste incineration. Some control air toxic emissions from other sources by segmentation into several toxicity categories. History shows that when one country passes tough regulations for a particular pollutant other developed countries follow suit within a decade or two. Developing countries also will follow suit but not in the same time frame.

China already has utility mercury reduction rules in effect for the next five year plan but they are lenient. Jeremy Schreifels of the U.S. EPA was in the discussion. He believes that the Chinese are targeting tough regulations for around 2020. Presently there are lots of research studies and considerable monitoring. Thermo Fisher has at least 15 Mercury Freedom CEMS on Chinese power plant stacks. Tekran has at least one. Sorbent traps are used but are four times more expensive than in the U.S. due to tariffs and taxes. This could change with domestic production

Chinese waste incinerators use lots of activated carbon. The Chinese cement plants are now moving toward the burning of hazardous waste. One estimate is that 10 percent of the Chinese cement plants will be burning hazardous waste within the next five years. This will cause them to fall under the incinerator rules and force them to install mercury control equipment.

The U.S. is ahead of other countries. Over the last decade the U.S. has developed the technology to meet the stringent standards now in effect. This gives the U.S. companies an edge which they need to exploit.

§ Make other countries aware of the technology. McIlvaine is offering a free mercury decisions system to any operator of a boiler or furnace anywhere in the world.

§ Reach operators in other countries with webinars in their language. Here is a link to a recorded webinar that McIlvaine conducted for CBI.

Search Results

§ Decisively classify the important subjects. Here is an example of how catalyst maintenance has been classified into three sub-segments. Definitions and precise terminology in Chinese has also been provided.

Major Class	Parent	Descriptor	Acronym	Synonym	Chinese Descriptor	Reference	Definition
Product	Catalyst Maintenance	Cleaning Catalyst			催化剂除灰	Coalogix	A dry process that utilizes vacuum and compressed air to mechanically remove as much of the flyash accumulation as possible.
Product	Catalyst Maintenance	Regeneration Catalyst			催化剂再生	Coalogix	“Catalyst cleaning” followed by a wet chemical process to remove decay compounds plus re-impregnation of the catalytic compound(s).
Product	Catalyst Maintenance	Rejuvenation Catalyst			催化剂复原	Coalogix	“Catalyst cleaning” followed by a wet chemical process to remove some decay compounds with minimum removal of catalytic compound(s). There is no re-impregnation of the catalytic compound(s).

§ Work with U.S. groups interested in expanding scope, such as the Council of Industrial Boiler Owners (CIBO) and the Institute of Clean Air Companies (ICAC).

A common metric to measure the harm from each pollutant will show that reductions in mercury are equivalent to very large reductions in CO₂ in terms of harm to the society. China should develop this common metric to properly assess the impact of any initiative on their citizens as well as on those of Japan, Taiwan, and downwind countries. One scenario is that the program to reduce mercury in China could be a part of negotiated treaties to resolve a range of problems with Japan, Taiwan, and even the U.S.