The Emission Behavior of Mercury for Various Products of Coal Preparation

Abstract

Mercury is a major concern among hazardous heavy metals because of its high volatility and high toxicity, and coal combustion is recognized as one of the main anthropogenic sources of this element. Various products from a coal preparation plant in Tianzhuang, Henan Province, China, were used to study the mercury emission behavior during combustion. The results indicated that the mercuric inorganic compound has been enriched to the middling coals by physical separation methods. Further studies showed that the raw, middling, and clean coals had similar mercury emission behavior during combustion. The elemental mercury is the main form in smoke at various combustion stages.

Keywords:

• Coal preparation
• Combustion
• Mercury emission
• Pyrite

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The project was supported by the Eleventh Five Years Plan Project of China and supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. Thanked Institute of Combustion Science and Environmental Technology provides an analysis of mercury.

Notes

Note. A = ash yield; M = moisture; V = volatile matter; St = total sulfur; ad = air dried; d = dry; daf = dry ash free.