EPA/600/R-10/006 

February 2010 

Control of Mercury Emissions from Coal Fired Electric Utility Boilers: 

An Update 

by 

Ravi Strivastava 

Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division 

National Risk Management Research Laboratory 

Research Triangle Park, NC 27711 

National Risk Management Research Laboratory 

Office of Research and Development 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 

Cincinnati, Ohio 45268 
 

Glossary of Terms 

ACI Activated Carbon Injection 

APC Air Pollution Control 

APPCD Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division 

B-PAC Brominated Powdered Activated Carbon (product name from Sorbent 

Technologies Corp, Twinsburg, OH) 

CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics 

CS-ESP Cold-side Electrostatic Precipitator 

DOE United States Department of Energy 

EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency 

EPRI Electric Power Research Institute 

ESP Electrostatic Precipitator 

E-3 Product name of Norit Americas’ halogenated powdered activated carbon 

FF Fabric Filter (baghouse) 

FGD Flue Gas Desulfurization 

FGD (Norit) Norit FGD is the product name for an activated carbon produced by Norit 

Americas 

HS-ESP Hot-side Electrostatic Precipitator 

ICR Information Collection Request 

L/G Liquid-to-Gas ratio 

LSFO Limestone Forced Oxidation scrubber 

MEL Magnesium Enhanced Lime scrubber 

NETL National Energy Technology Laboratory 

NOx Nitrogen Oxides 

ORD Office of Research and Development 

PAC Powdered Activated Carbon 

PJFF Pulse Jet Fabric Filter 

PM Particulate Matter 

PPPP Pleasant Prairie Power Plant 

PRB Subbituminous coal mined in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin 

PS Particulate Scrubber 

R&D Research and Development 

RD&D Research, Development, and Demonstration 

SCA Specific Collection Area 

SCR Selective Catalytic Reduction 

SDA Spray Dryer Absorber 

SDA/FF Spray Dryer Absorber with downstream Fabric Filter 

SEA Sorbent Enhanced Additive 

STS Sodium Tetrasulfide 

TBD To Be Determined 

UBC Unburned Carbon 

2
 
 

 

Control of Mercury Emissions from Coal Fired Electric Utility Boilers: 

An Update
 

Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division 

National Risk Management Research Laboratory
 

Office of Research and Development 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
 

Research Triangle Park, NC 

February 18, 2005 

INTRODUCTION 

Coal-fired power plants in the U.S. are known to be the major anthropogenic source of domestic 

mercury emissions.1 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently proposed to 

reduce emissions of mercury from these plants.2

 In March 2005, EPA plans to promulgate final 

regulations to reduce emissions of mercury from coal-fired power plants. To help inform this 

regulatory effort, a White Paper on the status of mercury control technologies for electric utility 

boilers was released in February 2004 by EPA’s Office of Research & Development. 3 

Subsequently, much new information has become available on these technologies. This White 

Paper has been prepared to document the current status of mercury controls and help inform the 

upcoming regulatory action. As will be discussed, control of mercury emissions from coal-fired 

boilers is currently achieved via existing controls used to remove particulate matter (PM), sulfur 

dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen oxides (NOX). This includes capture of particulate-bound mercury in 

PM control equipment and soluble mercury compounds in wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) 

systems. Available data also show that use of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) NOX control 

enhances the concentration of soluble mercury compounds in flue gas from some coal-fired 

boilers and results in increased mercury removal in the downstream wet FGD system. Controls 

are also under development specifically for the purpose of controlling mercury emissions. This 

White Paper will focus on the control options that have been, or are currently being, used/tested 

at power plants. 

THE U.S. POWER SECTOR 

The U.S. fleet of coal-fired generating assets covers a range of coals and plant configurations. 

The coal and plant characteristics impact the effectiveness of various mercury control methods at 

these plants. The U.S. coal-fired power plants typically burn one of three types of fuel: (1) 

bituminous coal (also referred to as “high rank” coal), (2) subbituminous coal, and (3) and lignite 

(subbituminous coal and lignite are referred to as “low rank” coals). Some of the characteristics 

of interest for these coal types are given in Table 1.4 

The current capacity of U.S. coal-fired power plants is just over 300 GW and includes a wide 

range of combinations of installed air pollution control (APC) configurations. In response to 

current and proposed NOX and SO2 control requirements, additional NOX control and flue gas 

3
 
 

 

 

 

desulfurization (FGD) systems are expected to be installed and more widely used in the future 

(see Figures 1 and 2 below). Over half of the U.S. coal-fired capacity is projected to be equipped 

with selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and/or FGD technology by 2020. Table 2 shows the 

current and projected coal-fired capacity by APC configuration. 5 

BEHAVIOR OF MERCURY IN COAL-FIRED ELECTRIC UTILITY BOILERS 

Mercury may be present in the flue gas in several forms. The specific chemical form – known as 

the speciation – has a strong impact on the capture of mercury by boiler air pollution control 

(APC) equipment.*

 Mercury may be present in the flue gas as elemental mercury vapor (Hg0), as 

a vapor of an oxidized mercury species (Hg2+), and as particulate-bound mercury (Hgp). 

Mercury is present in coal in trace amounts (approximately 0.1 ppm on average). Research by 

the U. S. Geological Survey indicates that much of the mercury in coal is associated with pyrite. 

Other forms of mercury that have been reported are organically bound, elemental, and in sulfide 

and selenide minerals.6

 During combustion the mercury is released into the exhaust gas as 

elemental mercury vapor, Hg0. This vapor may then be oxidized to Hg2+ via homogeneous (gasgas) and heterogeneous (gas-solid, surface catalyzed) reactions. 

The primary homogeneous reaction is that with gas-phase chlorine. As the combustion exhaust 

gases exit the boiler and cool, thermodynamic equilibrium shifts to favor formation of HgCl2 

vapor. The temperature window where this transformation occurs varies, based upon coal 

conditions, from about 620 °F to 1250 °F.7 At the temperature after the last heat exchanger, 

normally around 300 °F, one would expect all of the mercury to be in the oxidized form if the 

reactions went to equilibrium. However, gas-phase mercury oxidation is slow and highly 

dependent upon the amount of chlorine8 in the flue gas and, in practice, the amount of oxidized 

mercury in the flue gas can range from a few percent to over 90%. Therefore, the transformation 

of elemental mercury to oxidized mercury is kinetically limited, i.e., the chemical reactions 

associated with mercury oxidation do not go to completion. 

Heterogeneous (gas-solid, surface catalyzed) mercury oxidation is more complex and depends 

upon the availability of surfaces having electrophyllic groups that attract the electron-rich Hg0 

atom. The heterogeneous reactions occur mostly on fly ash surfaces or boiler surfaces, especially 

if the fly ash contains high amounts of unburned carbon. A proposed heterogeneous oxidation 

mechanism indicates the chlorination of carbon by HCl is a first step toward heterogeneous 

oxidation of Hg0

 to HgCl2, and adsorption of the mercury onto the carbon.9 The mercury that is 

adsorbed onto solid surfaces, such as fly ash or unburned carbon, is the particulate-bound 

mercury, Hgp, which can be captured by downstream PM control devices. Hence, fly ash 

characteristics – especially carbon - as well as coal chlorine content play an important role in 

mercury speciation and capture. 

*

 In general it is thought that Hg0 will not be removed by pollution control equipment without first converting it to 

another form of mercury – either Hg2+ or Hgp However, there is also the possibility for interaction between a 

charged surface and the elemental mercury vapor. These interactions may be in the form of electrostatic, van de 

Waals, and polarization energies (elemental mercury vapor is polarizable). 

4
 
 

Other flue gas species – especially SO3 and H2O – have also been shown to affect mercury 

speciation, tending to suppress Hg0

 oxidation to Hg2+. This is due to competition for active sites 

on the surface of carbon or other flue gas solids. In general, bituminous coals tend to have higher 

chlorine contents and also tend to produce higher levels of unburned carbon (UBC) in the fly 

ash. As a result, the flue gas from the burning of bituminous coals tends to contain higher 

amounts of Hg2+ species while that of subbituminous and lignite coals tends to contain more Hg0 

vapor. 

MERCURY REMOVAL BY EXISTING CONTROLS 

Mercury may be captured as a cobenefit of PM controls and SO2 controls, as well as through 

mercury-specific control technologies. The degree of this cobenefit can vary significantly 

depending upon the type of coal being burned and the specific control technology configuration. 

This native capture (i.e., mercury capture without add-on mercury-specific control technology) is 

seen in Figure 3, which shows mercury removal rates from EPA’s Information Collection 

Request (ICR) for three different coal types and APC configurations in use at power plants. 

There are some important trends in this figure. 

•	 For the same APC configuration, the average mercury removal for bituminous coal was 

greater than that for other coals. 

•	 Mercury removal for a fabric filter (FF) was significantly higher than those for a coldside ESP (CS-ESP) or hot-side ESP (HS-ESP) for both bituminous and subbituminous 

coals (no FF data for lignite coals). 

•	 Average mercury removal for bituminous coal-fired boilers with Spray Dryer Absorber 

and FF (SDA/FF) was very high (over 95%); for subbituminous coal-fired boilers with 

the same control configuration mercury removal was considerably less (about 25%), 

which was actually less than for a FF alone (about 75%). 

•	 In several cases there was a high level of variability in capture efficiency. 

The tendency for a higher native mercury capture from boilers burning bituminous coal is likely 

a result of the higher chlorine content in the coal and of the tendency of these coals to produce 

higher levels of unburned carbon in the flue gas. Both factors will contribute to greater levels of 

mercury as Hg2+ and Hgp, which are easier to capture in existing air pollution control equipment 

than Hg0

. 

The improved mercury capture for plants using FF as compared to those using ESPs can be 

explained by the increased contact the gas experiences with fly ash and unburned carbon (UBC) 

as those accumulate as a filter cake on the FF. The filter cake acts as a fixed-bed reactor and 

contributes to greater heterogeneous oxidation and adsorption of the mercury. 

The poor removal of mercury by SDA/FF on low rank coals can be explained by the fact that 

much of the HCl in the flue gas is captured by the SDA, leaving inadequate HCl at the FF to 

participate in the oxidation and capture of Hg0

. For bituminous coals, usually having a higher 

percentage of mercury as Hg2+ due to higher coal chlorine and UBC, this HCl stripping effect 

appears not to be important. 

5
 
 

 

The high variability of mercury capture for several situations indicates that for several cases 

there are other important factors besides coal rank and APC configuration. For example, the 

bituminous coal with CS-ESP data covers a range of coal chlorine, fly ash carbon, ESP inlet 

temperature and coal sulfur levels – all of which can impact mercury capture efficiency. So, even 

within any classification of coal or control technology, there may be a significant amount of 

variability in the native mercury capture. 

Mercury Capture in PM Controls 

As seen earlier in the ICR data (Figure 3), a FF can be very effective for mercury capture, 

especially for bituminous coals, but for subbituminous coal as well. However, this FF-only 

configuration represents less than 5% of the U.S. coal burning capacity and is expected to 

decline in the next 15 years (see Table 2). 

The native mercury capture in plants having only CS-ESP or HS-ESP was shown to be much less 

effective when compared to those with the FF-only configuration. This is because there is much 

less contact between gaseous mercury and fly ash in ESPs. Also, HS-ESPs operate at higher 

temperatures at which capture in fly ash is not effective. As with the FF-only configuration, the 

ESP-only configuration is expected to become less common (though still approximately 20% of 

the total capacity) in the next 14 years with the expected installation of NOX and SO2 controls. 

Mercury capture in PM control devices becomes much more important with the injection of 

sorbents to the flue gas stream. This is discussed in great detail later in this document. 

Mercury Capture in FGD Systems 

FGD systems typically fall into one of two broad categories. The wet FGD systems include the 

common limestone forced oxidation (LSFO) scrubber and the magnesium-enhanced lime (MEL, 

or “mag-lime”) scrubber. The dry FGD systems are typically spray dryer absorbers (SDA), 

which are usually installed in combination with a FF (SDA/FF). 

Mercury Capture in Wet FGD Systems 

Mercury in the oxidized state (Hg2+) is highly water soluble and thus would be expected to be 

captured efficiently in wet FGD systems. Data from actual facilities has shown that capture of 

over 90% Hg2+ can be expected in calcium-based wet FGD systems, though there are cases 

where significantly less has been measured. It has been suggested that this is primarily a result of 

scrubber equilibrium chemistry and good predictive capability for total mercury capture in wet 

FGD systems using a thermochemical equilibrium model has been discussed.10 It has also been 

shown that under some conditions Hg2+ will be reduced to Hg0

 and the mercury will be 

reemitted.11 In some cases, the reduction of Hg2+ to Hg0 and subsequent re-emission have been 

abated with the help of sulfide-donating liquid reagent.7 So this limiting FGD scrubber chemistry 

and reemission of mercury may result in Hg2+ capture that is significantly less than 90%. 

Experience has shown that Hg2+ reduction and reemission may be more difficult to avoid in 

magnesium-enhanced lime (MEL) scrubbers due to the much higher sulfite concentration in 

these systems.12 

6
 
 

The effect of scrubber chemistry and operating conditions on mercury emissions exhibited in 

Figure 4, which shows the measured mercury emissions as liquid-to-gas ratio (L/G) was varied 

on a 100 MMBtu/hr pilot facility with inlet mercury concentration in the range of about 10-25 

μg/dsm.3

 Higher L/G resulted in lower outlet mercury emissions which has implications for wet 

FGD type – Limestone Forced Oxidation having higher L/G than Magnesium Enhanced 

Limestone (MEL) wet FGD. 

Figure 5 shows the mercury removal for various FGD systems reported by different sources, 

including mercury removal with SCR in operation.12, 13, 14, 15 All results, except those on the far 

right of the figure, are from wet FGD systems. There isn’t enough data in this figure to show 

clear trends between various wet FGD system types. But, more detailed examination of scrubber 

operating characteristics would likely reveal that the scrubber chemistry may be optimized to 

achieve high mercury removal as well as high SO2 removal.10, 11, 12 In any event, it is clear that 

the use of SCR and FGD combination consistently yielded mercury removal of nearly 90% in 

each of the applicable cases shown in Figure 5. In a comparable study partially funded by the 

U.S. DOE, 6 boilers fired with bituminous coal and equipped with SCRs, ESPs, and wet FGDs 

were shown to reduce total mercury emissions by 85%.16 SCR impact on mercury speciation is 

discussed in the following section. 

Oxidation of Hg0 to Hg2+ by SCR Catalysts 

Because Hg2+ can be captured much more effectively than Hg0

 in wet FGD systems, methods to 

increase the amount of Hg2+ upstream of the wet FGD should improve mercury capture in the 

wet FGD system. Under certain conditions, SCR catalysts have been shown to promote the 

oxidation of Hg0 to Hg2+, particularly for bituminous coal. The impact of SCR on mercury 

oxidation is being investigated in two series of field tests: (1) EPRI-EPA-DOE sponsored field 

tests15 and (2) DOE sponsored tests being conducted by CONSOL.13 The results of field test 

programs suggest that oxidation of elemental mercury by SCR catalyst may be affected by the 

following:15 

• The coal characteristics, especially the chlorine content 

• The amount of catalyst used to treat the gas stream 

• The temperature of the reaction 

• The concentration of ammonia 

• The age of the catalyst 

The above factors have significance regarding the potential benefits of SCR on mercury capture 

for bituminous coals vis-à-vis subbituminous or lignite coals. A comparison of the effects of 

SCR shows that oxidation of Hg0

 to Hg2+ is greater for bituminous coals than for subbituminous 

coals (no data is available for lignite). In fact, in most cases the use of SCR resulted in about 85 – 

90+% mercury in the oxidized form when firing bituminous coals. Figure 6 shows data from the 

EPRI-EPA-DOE field test, the DOE-CONSOL field tests and from field tests conducted at 

Dominion Resources Mount Storm Unit 2.12 In particular, the figure reflects the percent Hg2+ 

measured at the inlet of the CS-ESP for boilers equipped with SCR.12, 13, 15 Where data is 

available with the SCR off-line, it is also shown. In every bituminous coal case except S3, the 

percent Hg2+ increased. In the case of S3, a sampling artifact is suspected.11 In the case of the 

PRB-fired unit, Hg2+ concentration remained very low. It should be noted that there may be 

some uncertainty associated with speciated mercury measurements upstream of a PM control 

7
 
 

device. This is because PM in the extracted sample may cause oxidation of elemental mercury in 

that sample. 

It would be desirable to increase the oxidation of mercury by SCR when firing subbituminous 

coals to levels approaching the oxidation levels of bituminous coals. To investigate if this was 

possible, Senior and Linjewile17 compared the results of thermochemical equilibrium 

calculations of mercury species concentration to full-scale and pilot test results. There was good 

correspondence between the results of the calculations and test results, suggesting that oxidation 

of Hg0

 to Hg2+ with SCR when firing subbituminous coal is limited by equilibrium rather than by 

kinetics. Hence, an improvement in catalytic oxidation of Hg0

 to Hg2+ with SCR on boilers firing 

low-rank coals is not possible without a change in flue gas chemical composition (such as from a 

higher chlorine in coal) or a lower catalyst temperature. 

Senior and Linjewile also found that, when ammonia was injected, oxidation of Hg0

 to Hg2+ 

tended to drop somewhat.17 This suggests that the presence of ammonia may interfere with 

mercury oxidation on the catalyst. Another concern regarding the use of SCR for mercury 

oxidation is that of the catalyst age (i.e., as the SCR catalyst ages, the oxidation of mercury may 

decline due to a loss in catalyst activity). Although field tests of catalyst oxidation between years 

did not show a significant change in mercury oxidation, it is thought that the age of this catalyst 

may not be adequate to show a significant change. Most SCR systems installed on U.S. facilities 

have been operating for only a few years, so the effect of catalyst age on mercury oxidation may 

not be apparent yet. 

Mercury removal by SDA/FF systems 

As shown in Figure 3, mercury is very efficiently removed by SDA/FF combinations when used 

on bituminous coal-fired boilers – an average of approximately 95%. Mercury – mostly in the 

form of Hg2+ at the inlet of the SDA with bituminous coals - is captured in the filter cake of the 

FF. However, mercury capture in SDA/FF systems tends to be much less in low-rank coals. For 

low-rank coals, the low capture of mercury by SDA/FF systems is believed to be a result of the 

scrubbing of HCl in the SDA, which makes oxidation and capture of mercury (mostly in the 

form of Hg0

 for these coals) in the downstream FF less effective. In fact, Figure 3 shows higher 

mercury capture by FF when firing subbituminous coal than mercury capture by SDA/FF. This is 

believed to be a result of the SDA scrubbing effect in removing HCl that could otherwise be 

available to react on the FF. 

Data/Science Gaps and Associated Recommendations 

To meet regulatory time lines, research and development (R&D) efforts should be focused on 

those areas that are likely to affect the largest number of boilers or are likely to significantly 

impact the ability of a class of boilers to reduce mercury. The following are items (in no 

particular order) where there is a shortage of data or where knowledge remains inadequate: 

•	 Public information regarding mercury oxidation across SCR catalysts when lignite coal is 

fired could not be found. 

•	 The role ammonia plays in interfering with mercury oxidation should be studied in 

greater detail. If ammonia interferes with mercury oxidation in the manner previously 

8
 
 

 

suggested, then SCR effectiveness in oxidizing mercury may be reduced as the catalyst 

ages. 

•	 The speciation of mercury at the inlet of the SCR, or inlet of the PM control device (in 

the case where SCR is not installed), remains difficult to predict because the processes 

that govern mercury speciation in the boiler are not yet adequately understood. A better 

understanding of this would improve the ability to predict mercury removal performance 

of FGD and other air pollution control equipment. 

•	 The understanding of mercury oxidation across SCRs may best be conducted with 

coordinated laboratory/pilot and field testing. Field testing alone does not provide 

adequate control of conditions to understand this phenomenon. 

•	 More information on the effectiveness of mercury control with wet scrubbers on lignite 

or subbituminous fired boilers is needed. 

•	 Reduction of oxidized mercury in wet FGD and subsequent re-emission requires 

enhanced understanding. 

•	 Parallel efforts to improve measurement and data collection accuracy and to reduce the 

effort necessary for speciated measurements of mercury are critical. These are very 

challenging, labor intensive measurements. Significant progress has been made over the 

last few years to improve the reliability and accuracy of on-line measurement systems. 

However, accurate and dependable measurement of mercury at very low concentrations 

will be needed to prove the efficacy of mercury control systems. 

•	 An improved understanding of the behavior of mercury in the boiler and air pollution 

control system may offer insights to addressing operational variability. Modeling 

supported by verification testing should be pursued to develop these capabilities. 

•	 Efforts examining the potential for leaching of Hg and other metals (e.g., Se, As) from 

coal combustion residues (fly ash, scrubber sludge, etc.) are ongoing. Based on limited 

number of samples, results of these efforts have indicated that leaching of mercury from 

flyash and flyash-sorbent mixtures does not appear to be of concern. However, the 

potential for leaching of Hg and other metals should continue to be evaluated over a 

range of coal combustion residue types and their management practices. 

•	 The potential for release of mercury in processes involving beneficial use of coal 

combustion residues (e.g., wallboard production and other high temperature processes) 

should be evaluated. 

APPROACHES FOR ENHANCING MERCURY CAPTURE BY SO2 OR PM 

CONTROLS 

Important factors that have been found to influence the mercury capture as a cobenefit of other 

APC equipment include the coal characteristics, especially the chlorine content, and the carbon 

content of the fly ash. Therefore, efforts to improve capture efficiency of existing equipment 

have been directed primarily at several approaches: fuel blending, addition of oxidizing 

chemicals, controlling UBC content of the fly ash, addition of a mercury-specific oxidizing 

catalyst downstream of the PM control device. Many of these options are shown in Figure 7. 

9
 
 

 

Fuel Blending 

Blending of small amounts of bituminous coal with subbituminous or lignite coal may provide 

some benefit to capture of mercury by existing equipment. Coal blending has been shown to 

affect UBC and mercury removal. For example, Sjostrom showed that at Holcomb Station, a 360 

MW, PRBa

-fired boiler equipped with SDA/FF for SO2 and PM control, vapor phase mercury 

capture across the SDA/FF system could be increased from less than 25% to nearly 80% by 

blending small amounts of western bituminous coal with the PRB coal.18 Since mercury removal 

of SDA/FF systems firing 100% bituminous coals has been shown to be about 90% or greater, 

this permits mercury removal performance approaching that of bituminous coals while firing 

mostly PRB. The effectiveness of this approach in improving cobenefit mercury controls is likely 

to be very facility-specific. The long-term effects of blending fuels would need to be evaluated 

for each application. Blending may change boiler slagging/fouling characteristics or the 

performance of APC equipment. 

Addition of Oxidizing Chemicals 

The addition of chlorine to the fuel or injection into the flue gas is another approach that is being 

tested for enhancing intrinsic capture of mercury. At Laskin 2 (firing PRB) and at Stanton 10 

(firing North Dakota lignite), chlorine salts were added to the fuel to assess the impact of 

increasing fuel chlorine on mercury oxidation and capture. Laskin 2 is equipped with a Particle 

Scrubber (PS) and Stanton 10 with a SDA/FF. In both cases, mercury oxidation increased, 

although for some salts the mercury capture did not increase. In the case of Laskin, opacity was 

observed to increase as a result of salt addition and in the case of Stanton 10, pressure drop 

across the FF increased. Long-term effects, such as corrosion, plugging, impacts on combustion 

equipment could not be assessed during the short-term parametric tests.19 Therefore, the use of 

coal additives offer some promise at improving mercury capture; however, they may have other 

impacts that need to be evaluated. 

Increasing UBC in Fly Ash 

Carbon in the fly ash has been shown to be an important factor in mercury capture by PM control 

equipment. For example, at Salem Harbor #1, which fires bituminous coal and has a CS-ESP, 

mercury removal rates over 80% were measured on some occasions. These were attributed in 

large part to the very high carbon content in the fly ash – on the order of 15% or more and 

sometimes around 30%.20 As a result of this phenomenon, it is possible to optimize the trade off 

between higher fly ash carbon and improved mercury control by adjusting combustion conditions 

or fuels. Since unburned carbon is unavailable for the production of steam and electricity 

following combustion there is a trade-off between the overall plant efficiency versus mercury 

adsorption. In general, this approach may be employed at any plant with a CS-ESP or FF, but 

may be more applicable to those with dry bottom boilers. However, the carbon content in the fly 

ash may need to be kept within acceptable limits due to constraints with ESP or FF performance 

or opacity. For plants with HS-ESPs, this approach is not expected to be effective because the 

carbon is not very effective in capturing mercury at HS-ESP temperatures. Finally, other impacts 

a

 PRB coal is a commonly used subbituminous coal that is mined in the Powder River Basin (PRB) in Wyoming. 

10
 
 

of increased UBC (e.g., waste disposal and byproduct use) could also pose additional constraints 

on use of this mercury control approach. 

Mercury-Specific Catalysts 

Enhancing capture by wet FGD processes is possible if Hg0 can be oxidized to Hg2+. Research 

efforts are underway to evaluate catalysts that are installed upstream of the wet FGD or injection 

of oxidizing chemicals upstream of the FGD. These approaches are undergoing full-scale 

evaluation. Important concerns involve longevity of the catalyst and the long-term effects of 

oxidizing chemicals on downstream equipment. 

Improvement of Mercury Capture in Wet FGD 

As mentioned earlier the amount of mercury that is captured in the wet FGD system is limited by 

the amount of oxidized mercury entering the scrubber and by the scrubber equilibrium chemistry. 

The mercury removal performance of the scrubber may also decrease if absorbed Hg2+ is reduced 

and reemitted as Hg0 vapor. 

Evaluation of ICR Data 

An analysis of the EPA ICR data was conducted in order to evaluate reemission from the FGD 

system. The data for systems with CS-ESP/wet FGD and HS-ESP/wet FGD were evaluated. The 

increase of the amount of elemental mercury across the entire system was assumed to be the 

result of Hg2+ mercury that was absorbed in the wet scrubber and subsequently reduced and 

reemitted as Hg0 vapor. The data* was evaluated using the following equation:

0 0

0 (Hg − Hg ) % Hg out in increase = x100 Total (Hg ) in 

For the CS-ESP/wet scrubber configuration there was a 5% increase in Hg0 across the system for 

bituminous (1 unit). The subbituminous (3 units) and lignite (2 units) plants showed a 4-50% and 

12-21% decrease of Hg0

 across the system, respectively. 

For the HS-ESP/wet scrubber configuration, however, there was a greater tendency for 

increasing Hg0

 across the system. For bituminous plants (2 units) the Hg0 increased by 2-12%, 

while the subbituminous plants (4 units) ranged from a 30% decrease up to 67% increase (note: 3 

of the 4 subbituminous units showed a net increase of elemental mercury across the APC 

system). There were no lignite plants with the HS-ESP/wet scrubber configuration. 

Field Testing 

Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) and McDermott Technology, Inc. completed field tests at two 

commercial coal-fired utilities with wet FGD systems. The work was funded by DOE/NETL, the 

Ohio Coal Development Office, and B&W. The test sites were (1) Michigan South Central 

Power Agency’s (MSCPA) 55 MW Endicott Station and (2) Cinergy’s 1300 MW Zimmer 

*

 Only data where the inlet and outlet flows were within +/- 30% were used in this analysis. Also, cases where there 

was a net increase of Hg2+ across the system were not used in this analysis. 

11
 
 

Station. Endicott Station uses a limestone forced oxidation (LSFO) wet FGD system, while 

Zimmer Station using Thiosorbic® Lime (magnesium enhanced lime, MEL) and ex situ 

oxidation. High-sulfur bituminous coal was burned at both locations. The results of the tests were 

as follows:21 

At the Endicott Station, total mercury removal across the wet FGD system during the 4-month 

long tests ranged from 76% to 79%. Most of the oxidized mercury present in the flue gas was 

removed in the scrubber system (approximately 96% removal). No increase in elemental 

mercury concentration across the scrubber was observed. This indicated that the control 

technology was successful in maintaining high levels of oxidized mercury removal and also 

simultaneously suppressing mercury reemission. 

Following the Endicott test program, a 15-day verification test was performed at the Zimmer 

Station. The average total mercury removal across the wet FGD system averaged approximately 

51% during this test. Lower removal of oxidized mercury was observed, as compared to that 

measured at Endicott (87% vs. 97%). Additionally, the elemental mercury concentration 

increased across the wet FGD system, by approximately 40%. This indicated that the technology 

was less effective in removing oxidized mercury and ineffective in suppressing reemission of 

captured mercury from the scrubber. 

In order to evaluate the individual and cumulative role of SCR catalyst, ammonia injection and 

chemical additive on the speciation and removal in a limestone forced oxidation (LSFO) 

scrubber, testing was conducted at Dominion Resources Mount Storm power plant (Unit 2, 563 

MW, firing medium-sulfur Eastern bituminous coal).12 Baseline mercury removal testing was 

completed under several scenarios including full flue gas bypass of the SCR and flue gas flowing 

through the SCR with and without ammonia injection. After baseline testing, a chemical additive 

(sodium hydrosulfide, NaHS) was injected into the scrubber recirculation pumps to evaluate its 

impact on oxidation and reemission of elemental mercury. The results of the tests are given in 

Table 3. 

The results showed that during testing with the SCR bypassed and no injection of the additive, 

the scrubber still captured greater than 90% of the oxidized mercury (71% total mercury). 

However, there was reemission of Hg2+ as Hg0

 vapor as indicated by the approximately 15% net 

increase of elemental mercury across the scrubber. Under the same conditions (SCR bypassed) 

but with the chemical additive injected, there was again greater than 90% capture of the Hg2+ and 

approximately 30% capture of Hg0 (actually Hg0 that was oxidized and retained as Hg2+). There 

was also an increased total mercury removal, at 78%. In tests where the flue gas was directed 

through the SCR, both with and without chemical additive injected into the scrubber 

recirculation pumps, the removal of Hg2+ increased to greater than 95% and the total mercury 

removal increased to greater than 90%. 

These results indicate the effectiveness of the chemical additive (a NaHS injection technology 

that has been patented by B&W) in suppressing the reemission of elemental mercury. The tests 

also showed that the presence of the SCR catalyst significantly impacted the mercury speciation 

profile at the inlet of the wet scrubber, causing oxidation of the remaining elemental mercury. 

The oxidized mercury was effectively removed by the wet scrubber.12 

12
 
 

Data and Science Gaps and Associated Recommendations 

For each of these methods used to enhance the removal of mercury by existing equipment, the 

effectiveness under the range of operating conditions, and range of coals that a plant may operate 

with, would need to be evaluated. Long-term impacts to the plant, particularly corrosion with 

approaches that involve chemical additives to the flue gas or fuel, should be examined. Impacts 

to other air pollution control devices must also be considered. 

The effectiveness of oxidation catalysts over an extended period of exposure to flue gas may 

need to be understood better before such technology can be commercially implemented. 

MERCURY CONTROL BY SORBENT INJECTION 

Unlike the technologies described earlier, where mercury removal was achieved as a cobenefit 

with removal of other pollutants, mercury control via injection of sorbent materials into the gas 

stream of coal-fired boilers is under development. Injection of dry sorbents, such as powdered 

activated carbon (PAC), has been used for control of mercury emissions from waste combustors 

and has been tested at numerous utility units in the United States. However, sorbent injection 

experience on waste combustors may not be directly transferable to coal-fired electric utility 

boilers due to the following reasons. 

1. The concentration of mercury in the flue gas of waste combustors is an order of magnitude 

higher than for coal-fired boiler systems. Consequently, the amount of mercury captured 

per unit mass of carbon injected will, in general, be higher in waste combustors compared 

to coal-fired boilers. 

2.	 Typically, the flue gases of waste combustors have higher chlorine concentrations than 

those found in flue gases of coal-fired utility boilers. Since performance of ACI in 

situations with low levels of chlorine in the flue gas may be adversely affected, ACI 

performance on waste combustors may, in general, not be equivalent to that on coal-fired 

boilers. 

3.	 In general, coal-fired power plants are much larger in size compared to waste 

combustors. For example a large municipal waste combustor may be about the same size 

as a small, 40-50 MW, coal-fired plant. Accordingly, duct dimensions, generally, are 

much larger in coal-fired plants compared to those at waste combustors. Since mixing of 

injected AC and flue gas in the duct affects mercury capture performance, design of AC 

injection systems may, in general, be more involved for coal-fired boilers. 

Dry sorbent may be injected into the ductwork upstream of a PM control device – normally 

either an ESP or FF. In some cases, an FGD (dry or wet) system may be downstream of the 

sorbent injection point. Usually the sorbent is pneumatically injected as a powder. The injection 

location will be determined by the existing plant configuration and whether additional 

downstream PM control equipment, such as a FF, is retrofit. For example, to segregate collected 

fly ash from collected sorbent it may be beneficial to retrofit a pulse-jet FF (PJFF) downstream 

13
 
 

 

 

of an existing ESP and inject the sorbent between the ESP and the PJFF. This type of particulate 

removal configuration is called a Compact Hybrid Particle Collector (COHPACTM) and when 

combined with sorbent injection is called Toxic Emission Control (TOXECONTM). Therefore, 

for boilers currently equipped only with PM control devices, implementing sorbent injection for 

mercury control would likely entail either: 

•	 injection of powdered sorbent upstream of the existing PM control device (ESP or FF); or 

•	 injection of powdered sorbent downstream of the existing ESP and upstream of a retrofit 

PJFF, the TOXECONTM option; or 

•	 injection of powdered sorbent between ESP fields (TOXECON-IITM approach). 

Above powdered sorbent injection approaches might also be employed in combination with 

existing SO2 control devices. For example, powdered sorbent might be injected prior to the SO2 

control device or after the SO2 control device, subject to the availability of a means to collect the 

powdered sorbent downstream of the injection point. 

In general, factors that appear to impact the performance of any particular sorbent include: 

•	 injection concentration of the sorbent measured in lb/MMacfb

; 

•	 flue gas conditions, including temperature and concentrations of HCl and sulfur trioxide 

(SO3); 

•	 the air pollution control configuration; 

•	 the characteristics of the sorbent; and 

•	 the method of injecting the sorbent. 

These factors are discussed in more detail in the following sub-section. 

Mercury Control by Conventional PAC Injection 

The most widely tested sorbent for mercury control at utility boilers is PAC. Initial work focused 

on use of PAC because it is a material that is currently available for other uses (e.g., water 

treatment). PAC has been evaluated for mercury control in several pilot- and full-scale tests. 

More recently, field tests have been performed with other powdered sorbent materials such as 

enhanced PAC and silica-based sorbents, which are specifically formulated for controlling 

mercury emissions from power plants. As will be shown in the following sections, these 

specially-formulated sorbents appear to offer advantages over standard PAC in certain situations. 

Numerous field tests have been undertaken to evaluate the use of powdered sorbent, especially 

PAC, on capture of mercury from power plants. These tests have been sponsored by the 

Department of Energy/National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE/NETL), the Electric 

Power Research Institute (EPRI) and utility companies. Table 4 shows the test programs that 

b

 Sorbent injection rate is expressed in lb/MMacf, i.e., pounds of sorbent used for each million actual cubic feet of 

gas. For a 500 MW boiler, a sorbent rate of 1.0 lb/MMacf will correspond to approximately 120 lb/hour of sorbent. 

14
 
 

have either evaluated, or are evaluating, standard PAC injection for mercury control. As shown 

in the table, the test programs cover a variety of configurations and fuel types. 

Short-term PAC injection field tests 

In the 2001-2003 time period, the Department of Energy/National Energy Technology 

Laboratory (DOE/NETL), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and a group of utility 

companies funded relatively short-term field test projects to evaluate the use of ACI as 

summarized in Table 5. The first four projects reflected in the table were DOE/NETL Phase I 

projects. Experience gained in these relatively short-term projects added to insights on factors, 

mentioned above, that appear to impact the mercury capture performance achieved via PAC 

injection. Some of this experience is described below. 

Figure 8 shows the performance of a commonly used PAC product, Norit FGD, in full-scale 

parametric tests conducted in four of the projects.22 Results in this figure reveal that, in general, 

injection of PAC at increasing amounts tends to increase mercury removal efficiency. However, 

in some cases, a limiting value of removal efficiency may be reached above which additional 

injected carbon will not provide additional mercury removal. 

Temperature is known to impact the adsorption capacity of PAC, and therefore plays a very 

significant role. In most cases, the gas temperature at the available injection point upstream of 

the PM control device is around 300 °F and PAC has been shown to work effectively at this 

temperature. However, at temperatures approaching 350 °F or more, the effectiveness of 

standard PAC drops off rapidly.23 This was verified in testing at Salem Harbor, where increasing 

the ESP inlet temperature from 300°F to 350°F reduced mercury removal from approximately 90 

% to the 10-20 % range. Fortunately, cases where gas temperatures are this high are less 

common; such high temperatures, however, are found in lignite-fired boilers. Enhanced PACs or 

other sorbents may offer the capability to operate at much higher temperatures. 

As shown in Figure 8, mercury removal close to 90% was achievable at injection rates 

approaching 20 lb/MMacf at Brayton Point 1. On the other hand, at Pleasant Prairie Power Plant 

(PPPP) #1 it was not possible to achieve greater than about 65% mercury removal regardless of 

the PAC injection rate. An important difference between these two CS-ESP sites was the amount 

of unburned carbon in the fly ash. The PPPP fly ash typically has very low levels of UBC in the 

fly ash (<1%) while the Brayton Point unit is equipped with low-NOX burners and typically has 

higher levels of UBC in the fly ash. Another significant difference between these two sites was 

the relatively high level of chlorine in the coal used at Brayton Point (around 2000-4000 ppm) 

versus the relatively low chlorine level in the PPPP coal (around 8 ppm).23 Moreover, the 

alkaline fly ash at PPPP was believed to have neutralized some of the HCl in the flue gas, 

thereby leaving relatively little chlorine available for mercury chemistry. The large difference in 

the amount of chlorine available in the flue gas for mercury chemistry is believed to contribute to 

the high level of Hg2+ at Brayton Point and the low level of Hg2+ at PPPP. Adequate chlorine in 

the gas stream is believed to be necessary for capture of Hg0

 by standard PAC. Because the 

mercury in the PPPP gas was almost entirely Hg0, the low chlorine content limited the capture 

possible by the PAC. Nevertheless, test results showed that removal efficiency of Hg0

 and Hg2+ 

was about the same at PPPP.23 

15
 
 

It is believed that acid gas components such as SO3 compete with mercury for the active sites on 

PAC, and thereby can impact mercury capture performance of the PAC. In the tests conducted at 

Abbot, the best performance, 73% mercury capture, was achieved by injection of fine FGD at 

13.8 lb/MMacf at an ESP inlet temperature of 341 °F. The high sulfur flue gas appeared to 

impair the performance of the PAC. 

APC configuration can have a very significant impact on PAC performance. Gaston Unit 3 is a 

270 MW bituminous coal fired boiler with a HS-ESP and a FF installed downstream of the air 

preheater in a COHPACTM arrangement. The downstream FF in the COHPAC arrangement is 

smaller than a FF sized for the full ash loading. As shown in Figure 8, at Gaston, mercury 

removal rates around 90% attributable to the PAC were possible at injection rates less than 5 

lb/MMacf. It is noted, however, that flue gas temperatures at COHPACTM inlet, about 270 o

F, 

were lower than those typically found at the inlet of PM controls at power plants. Such low 

temperatures may have enhanced capture of mercury in the carbon sorbent. Figure 8 also shows 

that the performance of PAC injection upstream of pilot FF when firing a subbituminous coal is 

similar to the performance demonstrated at Gaston.23 The intimate contact between the PAC and 

the gas stream that occurs in a FF is believed to contribute to much higher removal than is 

possible through “in-flight” capture alone, such as for injection of PAC upstream of an ESP. 

Although there may be less chlorine present in the subbituminous coal, the high contact between 

the PAC and the gas in the FF facilitates the heterogeneous oxidation and adsorption of Hg0 onto 

the PAC. 

For all of the results shown in Figure 8, the sorbent used was a product called Norit FGD. In the 

case of PAC injection upstream of a CS-ESP, such as at PPPP and Brayton Point, the choice of 

sorbent made a significant difference in the performance. For example, at PPPP using treatment 

rates in the narrow range of 2.2 to 2.3 lb/MMacf the mercury removal ranged from 37% to 51% 

depending upon the sorbent selected. And, at Brayton Point for a treatment rate of 10 lb/MMacf 

the mercury removal ranged from 55% to 73%, depending upon the sorbent selected.22 However, 

when the sorbent was captured in a FF, such as at Gaston, no significant difference in 

performance was observed between standard PAC sorbents (due to increased contact time, as 

discussed above). Therefore, it is likely that the PAC properties such as particle size make a 

significant difference in performance when most of the mercury capture is in-flight. 

Speciated mercury capture data collected in the above projects is presented in Table 6. These 

data indicate that concentrations of Hgp in flue gas at the outlet of PM controls were less than 

0.35 μg/Nm3 for conditions without and with sorbent injection. This simply indicates that PM 

controls were operating reasonably. With regard to gaseous mercury (both Hg0

 and Hg2+), the 

following observations are made: 

•	 Hg0 concentrations at the outlet of PM controls were below 0.51 μg/Nm3 under sorbent 

injection conditions at Salem Harbor and Gaston. However, the same was not the case at 

Pleasant Prairie, where such concentrations amounted to about 4.3 μg/Nm3

. This may be 

attributed to most of the mercury in the flue gas at Pleasant Prairie being Hg0 and 

mercury removal efficiencies being about 70% in contrast to the much higher removal 

efficiencies achieved at Salem Harbor and Gaston. 

16
 
 

 

•	 Hg2+ concentrations at the outlet of PM controls were below 1 μg/Nm3 under sorbent 

injection conditions at all plants. 

•	 ACI was quite efficient in decreasing Hg2+ concentrations in flue gas at PM control 

outlets as seen in results from Pleasant Prairie and Gaston. At Pleasant Prairie, without 

ACI, Hg2+ concentration at ESP exit was more than 6 μg/Nm3, which was reduced to less 

than 0.5 μg/Nm3 with ACI. Similarly, Hg2+ concentration at COHPAC exit was reduced 

from 10.4 μg/Nm3 under no-ACI conditions to 0.8 μg/Nm3 with ACI. 

Incidentally, at Pleasant Prairie, without ACI, Hg0

 concentration at ESP exit was more 

than 9 μg/Nm3, which was reduced to less than 4.5 μg/Nm3 with ACI; that is a reduction 

of approximately 50%. This reduction is lower than the greater than 90% reduction 

measured for a corresponding decrease in Hg2+ concentration. 

The above observations indicate that ACI appears to be quite effective in controlling emissions 

of Hg 2+. However, this needs to be substantiated as more data is available. 

Cremer et al. discuss the results of a program to evaluate a model for assessing the injection, 

mixing, and associated mass transfer effects of injecting sorbent into the gas stream for mercury 

capture.24 In this program the PPPP PAC injection system was modeled using Computational 

Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software. Modeling suggested that mixing played a significant role in the 

in-flight mercury capture and, combined with test data, it suggested that some of the mercury 

removal was from PAC that had fallen out of the gas stream and deposited on surfaces. Modeling 

also suggested that only the smaller PAC particles (< 20 μm in diameter) were contributing 

significantly to mercury capture. Other programs to evaluate the importance of injection system 

design and particle size characteristics have also confirmed that these mass-transfer factors are 

significant in influencing performance of in-flight mercury capture by sorbent injection.25 As a 

result, the factors that govern mass transfer of the sorbent must be well controlled for good 

performance. And, comparison of test results from different field test programs should consider 

if the mixing and distribution effects are comparable before drawing conclusions regarding the 

effects of other test conditions. 

Longer term field test results with PAC injection26 

Following the short-term testing at Gaston described above, some longer term tests were 

undertaken. The main objectives of these tests were to further evaluate the potential for the 

mercury capture performance seen in short-term tests and to test higher permeability FF bags 

with lower pressure drop. In full-load (270 MW) tests, PAC was injected nearly continuously in 

the period June 26-November 25, 2003, at rates less than 0.7 lb/MMacf to maintain acceptable 

FF cleaning frequency for FF operation at an air-to-cloth ratio of 8.0 ft/min. This resulted in 

weekly mercury removal between 80- 90%, with an average of 86%, for the test period as shown 

in Figure 9. To achieve 90% removal, additional lower load (195 MW), or lower throughput, 

tests were conducted with FF operating at an air-to-cloth ratio of 6.0 ft/min. In these tests, PAC 

was injected for 2 weeks in November 2003 and greater than 90% mercury removal was 

achieved at injection rates of 2 lb/MMacf or more. Subsequently, in December 2003 full-load 

(270 MW) tests were conducted with higher permeability bagsc mounted in the FF, which 

c

 The higher permeability bags were 7.0 denier versus the original bags, which were 2.7 denier (denier is a measure 

of the linear density of a fiber and provides an indication of the cross section or thickness of the fibers). The 

17
 
 

 

 

 

operated at a air-to-cloth ratio of 8.0 ft/min. Greater than 90% mercury removal was achieved at 

injection rates of 0.8 lb/MMacf or more with acceptable FF cleaning frequency. The results of 

these tests indicate that if the FF is designed properly to accommodate the carbon loading, 90% 

or greater removal of mercury with relatively modest PAC injection rates may be possible in a 

TOXECONTM arrangement. 

Potential mercury capture constraints with PAC injection 

In general, the efficacy of mercury capture in standard PAC increases with the amount of Hg2+ in 

flue gasd

, the number of active sitese in the PAC, and lower temperature. The amount of Hg2+ in 

flue gas is directly influenced by the amount of chlorine present in the flue gas. Based on these 

factors, standard PAC injection appears to be generally effective for mercury capture on lowsulfur bituminous coal applications, but less effective for the following applications: 

•	 Low-rank coals + ESP with current capacity of greater than 150 GW and not expected to 

grow significantly in the future. Lower chlorine and higher calcium contents in coal lead 

to lower levels of chlorine in flue gas, which results in reduced oxidation of mercury and, 

therefore, lower Hg2+ in flue gas; 

•	 Low-rank coals + SDA + FF with current capacity of greater than 10 GW and expected to 

grow significantly in the future. Similar effect as above, except lime reagent from the 

SDA scavenges even more chlorine from flue gas; 

•	 High-sulfur coal, current capacity with wet FGD of approximately 100 GW and likely to 

grow to more than 150 by 2015. Relatively high levels of SO3 compete for active sites on 

PAC, which reduces the number of sites available for mercury. Generally, plants will use 

wet FGD and, in many cases, SCR; PAC injection may be needed as a trim application; 

and 

•	 Hot-side ESPs with capacity greater than 30 GW and not likely to grow. Weak (physical) 

bonds get ruptured at higher temperatures resulting in lower sorption capacity. 

Mercury Control by Halogenated PAC Injection 

Some situations, described above, may not have adequate chlorine present in the flue gas for 

good mercury capture by standard PAC. Accordingly, halogenated PAC sorbents have been 

developed to overcome some of the limitations associated with PAC injection for mercury 

control in power plant applications.27, 28 Two different halogenated PAC sorbents have been 

tested in field tests. They are Sorbent Technologies Corp. brominated-PAC (B-PAC) and Norit 

America’s halogenated PAC (E-3). 

Halogenated PACs offer several potential benefits. Relative to standard PAC, halogenated PAC 

use: (1) may expand the usefulness of sorbent injection to many situations where standard PAC 

permeability of the bags was 130 cfm/ft2 @ 0.5” H2O versus the nominal 30 cfm/ft2 @ 0.5”H2O for the original 

bags. 

d Standard PAC binds mercury via physical (i.e., weak) bonds, which are formed more easily with Hg 2+. There have 

been results that show a similar removal for both elemental and oxidized mercury. However, the results do not
 

account for surface oxidation/sorption on the carbon.
 e These are collection of atoms/radicals such as oxygen, chlorine, hydroxyls, which provide binding sites. 

18 
 

may not be as effective; (2) may avoid installation of downstream FF, thereby improving costeffectiveness of mercury capture; (3) would, in general, be at lower injection rates, which 

potentially will lead to fewer plant impacts and a lower carbon content in the captured fly ash; 

(4) may result in somewhat better performance with low-sulfur (including low-rank) coals 

because of less competition from SO3; and (5) may be a relatively inexpensive and attractive 

control technology option for developing countries as it does not involve the capital intensive FF 

installation. 

As shown in Table 7, halogenated PACs have been tested at full-scale for many different 

combinations of coal type and PM controls. In each of these tests, relatively high levels of 

mercury removal were achieved with relatively modest injection rates when compared to results 

from tests with non-halogenated PAC injection in similar plant configurations. 

Mercury control performance with halogenated PACs 

Figure 10 shows comparative results from PPPP (full scale parametric data with PAC and pilotscale data with B-PAC), St. Clair (full scale parametric test results with PAC and with B-PAC), 

and measured full-scale in-flight B-PAC mercury removal at Stanton 10 (S10), and parametric 

test data from Brayton Point.22, 27 In all cases, injection was upstream of a CS-ESP or in-flight 

removal upstream of the FF was measured. Also, except for Brayton Point, in all cases the HCl 

content was expected to be very low due to the coal type (subbituminous in the case of PPPP and 

St. Clair, and lignite in the case of S10). As shown, PAC was unable to remove more than about 

70% of the mercury at PPPP or St. Clair. In contrast, with B-PAC about 90% removal was 

achieved at around 5 lb/MMacf at both St. Clair and with the PPPP pilot. Also, for all cases 

where B-PAC was tested, similar results in terms of percent removal vs. injection rate were 

achieved. It should be noted that the ESP associated with B-PAC testing at St. Clair has a larger 

than typical SCA (700 ft2/kacfm)29 and this may potentially have contributed to high levels of 

mercury removal with modest B-PAC injection rates. On the other hand, since B-PAC injection 

rates were modest, they likely did not require a larger collection surface. As shown in Table 7, 

70% mercury removal with a B-PAC injection rate of 4 lb/MMacf was obtained at the Lausche 

plant, which fires a high-sulfur bituminous coal and has a mid-sized ESP with SCA (370 

ft2

/kacfm).27 It is believed that mercury capture at Lausche was affected by the high sulfur 

content in coal; SO3 in flue gas is believed to compete with mercury for active sites in the 

sorbent. At Cliffside (Low-sulfur bituminous coal with a hot side-ESP, and B-PAC), mercury 

reductions of 80% were measured at minimal load, and 40% at full load, during short term (2­

weeks parametric) tests.30 It is noted, however, that additional HS-ESP test programs with 

longer-term (30-day continuous) tests are planned/underway. These programs are summarized 

later in this document. Based on above observations, for boilers not firing high-sulfur coals 

and/or not using hot side-ESPs, injection of halogenated PAC, such as B-PAC, appears to have 

the potential to provide high levels of mercury removal under conditions that are challenging for 

PAC. 

Figure 11 shows comparative test results from programs including PAC and B-PAC sorbents 

where a downstream FF was used. In these tests, B-PAC performance consistently was superior 

in terms of percent reduction for a given injection concentration. For the bituminous coal cases, 

the Valley pilot and the Gaston full-scale data correspond almost exactly. Similarly, the Stanton 

10 and Valley pilot data correspond almost exactly, although Stanton 10 is a lignite-fired boiler 

19
 
 

with SDA/FF and Valley is bituminous coal-fired. A comparison of the Stanton 10 data with 

PAC injection versus Stanton 10 data with B-PAC injection shows how dramatic the difference 

in performance can be. 

Performance of a halogenated sorbent such as B-PAC appears to be relatively consistent 

regardless of coal type and appears to be mostly determined by whether or not the capture is inflight (as in upstream of a CS-ESP) or on a fabric filter. This is shown in Figure 12 where BPAC results from parametric tests are shown for in-flight and upstream of a fabric filter for 

various coal types. This is a significant development because performance of standard PAC is 

impacted by coal type as well as equipment. 

Finally, available data shown in Figure 13 reflect that performance of B-PAC and E-3 for 

Western coal (PRB, lignite) is similar to that of TOXECONTM (using conventional PAC) for 

Eastern bituminous. 

All of the data described above in this section are from shorter term parametric tests. The 

purpose of these tests was to determine conditions for longer-term testing with sorbents of 

interest. In these parametric tests, a sorbent was injected continuously for a few hours and 

mercury measurements were made. Subsequently, an operational parameter (usually the sorbent 

injection rate) was adjusted and the effect on mercury capture was measured. Each of the data 

points in Figures 10, 11 and 12 represents such a measurement. The results from these shorter 

term parametric tests were used to determine the condition s for longer-term tests, which are 

discussed below. 

Longer term tests with halogenated PAC injection 

As shown in Table 7, halogenated PACs have been tested for periods of 10 to 30 days at three 

plants. The results shown in Figures 14, 15, and 16 reflect relatively high levels of mercury 

removal were maintained for most of the testing periods with modest injection rates. 

Speciated mercury capture data collected in the above projects is presented in Table 8. These 

data indicate that concentrations of Hgp, Hg0

, and Hg2+ in flue gas at the outlet of PM controls 

were less than 0.6 μg/Nm3 each with halogenated sorbent injection. Thus, in general, 

halogenated PAC injection appears to be quite effective in controlling emissions of each of Hgp, 

Hg0

, and Hg2+. Note, however, that data from Pleasant Prairie indicated that injection of standard 

PAC may be limited in controlling Hg0. 

Additional testing with halogenated PAC injection 

A significant numbers of field tests are planned or ongoing over the next two years to further 

evaluate halogenated PACs for power plant applications. These are summarized below. 

DOE Phase II Round 1 Projects 

•	 B-PAC: 1-week parametric testing at Duke Energy, Cliffside 2, 40 MW, low-sulfur 

bituminous, HS-ESP; December 2004 

•	 B-PAC: 30-day parametric and 30-day continuous testing at Duke Energy, Buck 5, 140 

MW, low-sulfur bituminous, HS-ESP; Spring 2005 

20
 
 

•	 Norit E-3: 30-day continuous testing at AEP Conesville 6, 500 MW, bituminous, ESP, 

wet FGD; June 2005 

•	 Norit E-3: 30-day continuous testing at Detroit Edison Monroe 4, 375 MW, 

PRB/bituminous blend, ESP; November 2005 

DOE Phase II Round 2 Projects (expected for 2006) 

•	 B-PAC: 30-day parametric and 30-day continuous testing at Progress Energy, Lee 1, 80 

MW, low-sulfur bituminous, ESP 

•	 B-PAC: 2-week parametric testing at Progress Energy, Lee 2, 75 MW, low-sulfur 

bituminous, HS-ESP 

•	 B-PAC: 30-day parametric and 30-day continuous testing at Midwest Generation, 

Crawford 7, 100 MW, subbituminous, ESP, sell ash for concrete 

•	 B-PAC: 2-week parametric testing at Midwest Generation, Will County 3, 130 MW, 

subbituminous, HS-ESP, sell ash for concrete 

•	 Norit E-3: Testing at TXU Big Brown Steam Electric Station, lignite-subbituminous 

blend 

•	 Norit E-3: Testing at 2 facilities with TOXECON IITM configurations; one bituminous 

and one PRB; locations TBD 

Other Advanced Sorbents and Additives 

Aside from standard and halogenated PACs, other advanced sorbents and additives, designed to 

overcome shortcomings of PAC in certain power plant applications, are being developed and 

tested. These are briefly described below. 

About 15% of the power plant fly ash in the United States, or about 10 million tons, is sold as a 

cement additive. PAC, when added to fly ash, however, adsorbs the Air Entraining Admixtures 

(AEA) that are used to provide the proper amount of fine air bubbles in concrete for good 

strength.31 It is possible to segregate the fly ash from the PAC by the use of a TOXECONTM 

system. However, this entails significant capital expenditure and operating expense associated 

with the retrofit FF. An alternative is to modify the sorbents. Silica-based sorbents and speciallyformulated PACs are under development to overcome some of the difficulties associated with 

use of PAC on facilities that sell their fly ash as a cement additive. Silica-based sorbents are 

being introduced by a company called Amended Silicates. These sorbents have not yet been 

tested for mercury removal at the full scale, but will be tested in 2005 at the Miami Fort unit 6, a 

175 MW bituminous coal fired boiler with three small ESPs in series.32, 33, 34 Speciallyformulated B-PAC has been shown to avoid high foam index and offer similar mercury removal 

performance as B-PAC in a laboratory test facility.31 However, additional development and 

testing of such specially-formulated sorbents is needed. 

Sodium Tetrasulfide (STS) is a liquid chemical reagent that is injected into the gas stream in the 

same location as PAC. STS has been used on municipal waste combustors to remove mercury. It 

has the benefit of reacting to form a stable mercury compound (cinnabar) that can safely be 

added to concrete or disposed of. This technology has been tested for coal power plant use at the 

pilot scale.35 

21
 
 

 

Efforts are underway to develop lower cost sorbents than commercial PAC sorbents. Sources 

include capture of devolatilized char from the furnace for use as a low-cost sorbent or oxidizing 

catalyst.36 This carbon, known as the “Thief Process”, was tested in a TOXECONTM slipstream 

at the Pleasant Prairie Unit 1. The mercury reduction provided by the Thief carbon was not as 

high as for conventional PAC injected at the same rate, however, if the cost is significantly less it 

may justify the higher injection rate. Testing of several other low-cost sorbents such as corn char 

or treated fly ash, which may provide cost-effective benefits in some cases, has been 

undertaken.37 These sorbents may be most useful in a TOXECONTM arrangement, which will 

both segregate the sorbent from the ash and provide improved gas-sorbent contact so that even 

low capacity sorbents can provide good performance without impacting fly ash quality. Another 

possibility is to use a low-cost sorbent in combination with an additive to enhance sorbent 

capacity. 

As discussed in the previous sections, chlorine plays an important role in facilitating the capture 

of Hg0 on sorbent. For low-rank fuels in particular, there may not be adequate chlorine to achieve 

high Hg0

 capture efficiency with PAC. Use of halogenated PAC sorbents comprises one 

approach. Another is to inject a chemical into the fuel, or into the gas stream, to provide the 

halogens needed for high sorbent capacity. At the 220 MW Leland Olds plant firing lignite coal 

and equipped with CS-ESPs, a Sorbent Enhancement Additive (SEA) has been tested. SEA, a 

fuel additive, was added between the feeders and pulverizers. For the field tests, average baseline 

mercury removal was 18% and the objective was to determine the treatment regimen to reach 

55% removal. A one month test with SEA and PAC showed that a 63% mercury removal rate 

was achieved over the period.38 Therefore, as an alternative to more expensive sorbents, it may 

be possible to use standard PAC, or even less expensive sorbents, along with an additive, when 

such additives are broadly available. 

Potential Plant Impacts Related to Sorbent Injection 

Sometimes a technology may be very useful in reducing the pollutant required, but result in other 

adverse side effects that could significantly impact the plant reliability. The following are some 

issues that have been considered as possible concerns for sorbent injection. 

Impact of PAC injection on downstream PM collector 

Calculations reveal that the increase in PM loading to the ESP or FF due to PAC injection would 

be relatively modest (see Figure 17). For example, at a standard PAC injection rate of 10 

lb/MMacf, with an ESP arrangement, about a 4% or less increase in total ash loading will be 

expected. For most applications, halogenated sorbents will likely be injected at rates less than 5 

lb/MMacf and incremental PM loading in flue gas will be limited to about 2 percent. Thus, 

change in PM loading from PAC or halogenated PAC injection may be less than the loading 

change expected from routine fuel or fuel batch changes at a power plant. Consequently, 

concerns related to impact on ESP performance generally should not relate to increased mass 

loading with injection of these sorbents. In fact, in full-scale testing on large (SCA > 400) and 

small (SCA~140) ESPs, no adverse impact was shown on PM removal performance.23, 39 Results 

from Brayton Point shown in Figure 18 reflect that ESP operation did not change with increase 

in PAC injection rate, even when this rate was as high as 20 lb/MMacf.23 

22
 
 

Balance-of-plant impacts resulting from standard carbon injection are under investigation at 

Georgia Power’s Yates Units 1 and 2, which are equipped with CS-ESPs with SCA’s 173 and 

144 ft2

/kacfm, respectively. During parametric ACI tests on these units, sorbent was injected at 

rates ranging from 2 lb/MMacf to greater than 12 lb/MMacf.40 It was observed that at both units, 

ESP arc rates within all fields increased from 0 to 1 arcs/min to greater than 10 arcs/min. In some 

instances arc rates as high as 35 arcs/min were observed, but the arcing was very sporadic in 

nature.41 Since arcing can degrade ESP PM capture performance, this was addressed in the 

subsequent one-month duration longer-term testing conducted on Unit 1 in the period midNovember through December 2004. Observations from longer-term tests are pending. In the 

longer-term testing, however, it was noted that sorbent injection rate greater than 4.5 lb/MMacf 

did not result in increased mercury removal, which ranged from 71-96% across the system.42 

Thus it appears to be unclear at this time if increased ESP arcing will occur at practical injection 

rates. Results from the longer-term testing at Yates Unit 1 should provide valuable information 

in this regard and this issue needs further investigation. 

Measurements of PM concentrations at the outlets of ESPs at Yates Units 1 and 2, taken during 

parametric and longer-term testing, reflected that 70% of these measured concentrations were 

within, or less than, those measured during baseline testing. PM concentrations greater than 

baseline values were measured when sorbent injection rates were in excess of 4.5 lb/MMacf. It 

was observed that injection rates greater than 4.5 lb/MMacf did not appear to provide additional 

mercury removal beyond that obtained at 4.5 lb/MMacf. Thus, it is not clear if unacceptable 

excursions in ESP outlet PM concentration will take place at practical injections rates. It was also 

observed that the highest ESP outlet PM concentration (0.3 lb/MMBtu) occurred at a sorbent 

injection rate of 17 lb/MMacf.42 Based on these observations, the potential for unacceptable PM 

emissions occurring due to sorbent injection at plants with small ESPs needs further 

investigation. 

Yates Unit 1 is equipped with a Jet Bubbling Reactor FGD. During longer-term testing, samples 

of the scrubber slurry were taken periodically. During the period of 25 November through 10 

December the scrubber slurry was observed to be either black or dark in color, while the carbon 

injection rate typically ranged from 4 - 6 lb/MMacf (with a few, brief periods at higher rates). 

Between November 25 and 29, the scrubber slurry was its darkest color, with its color slowly 

lightening over this time period. Prior to this time period, the scrubber slurry did not exhibit any 

visual evidence of carbon contamination. In the subsequent time period, the carbon injection rate 

was as high as 12 lb/MMacf, yet no further darkening was observed. Furthermore, while 

occasionally high PM concentrations were measured at the ESP outlet, no visible sign of carbon 

was noted on any of the particulate measurement train (Method 17) filters. From this limited set 

of data, it was observed that the breakthrough of carbon to the scrubber did not appear to be 

directly related to the magnitude of the carbon injection rate. Slurry samples will be analyzed to 

further evaluate this issue.42 

TOXECONTM results from Gaston have indicated, however, that retrofit FF will need to be sized 

properly to maintain acceptable FF pulsing frequency. Also, longer -term (24 days) halogenated 

carbon (E-3) injection tests on the SDA/FF system at Stanton Unit 1043 revealed that the cleaning 

frequency of the FF increased to every 3 to 4 hours, as compared to 6 to 8 hours during baseline 

operation without sorbent injection. However, during sorbent injection tests, the slurry feed to 

23
 
 

the SDA was varied to accommodate variations in coal sulfur content, which did not occur 

during the baseline testing. Since slurry feed rate can affect the frequency of FF cleaning, it was 

not possible to quantify the contribution of the sorbent injection to the changes in FF cleaning 

cycle. However, it was estimated that sorbent injection increased PM loading by a small amount, 

nominally 0.2% at an injection rate of 1 lb/MMacf and this small increase likely did not 

influence FF cleaning cycle. In addition to a change in cleaning frequency, a 4 - 6% increase in 

opacity was also observed for a very short time period (< 5 minutes) immediately after each FF 

cleaning step. 

Potential for increase in fine PM emissions 

Typically, the median of the particle size distribution for PAC or halogenated PAC sorbents is 

about 20 μm, and less than 5% of the sorbent particle mass is fine PM (i.e., less than 2.5 μm in 

size).44 Calculations suggest that the increase in fine PM loading (i.e., fine PM mass added with 

sorbent injection relative to total PM mass in the flue gas) with sorbent injection rate of 10 

lb/MMacf would be less than 0.2%. Further, fine PM removal efficiency of ESPs has been noted 

to be about 96%.45 Accordingly, sorbent injection would be expected to increase direct fine PM 

emissions by less than 0.01%. These indications, however, need to be substantiated with 

measurements. 

Fly ash sale for concrete manufacture 

As discussed above, there is some concern about the impacts to marketing of fly ash for 

beneficial reuse, especially when the ash is used as a cement additive. This is more of a concern 

for units with ESPs where standard PAC treatment rate could be high enough to cause a problem 

with fly ash sales. But, it may also be a concern in some plants equipped with a FF. At this time 

there are a few technical approaches that may mitigate such concerns. One is segregating the fly 

ash with a TOXECONTM system. This, however, would entail higher capital costs. TOXECONIITM may offer a lower cost approach, but it is under early testing. Finally, the last and the lowest 

capital cost approach – specially formulated sorbents - is under development as discussed above. 

Adverse effects of PAC or additives on downstream equipment 

So far, none of the test programs have shown any significant adverse impact to downstream 

equipment from the injection of PAC. Additives used to enhance PAC performance or other 

sorbents that may be used, however, might cause adverse effects on plant components. The 

potential for such impacts would have to be evaluated through long-term field testing conducted 

over time periods of several months or more. 

Other Considerations Associated with Broad-Scale use of Sorbent Injection Systems 

An assessment of the potential for broad-scale use of sorbent injection systems for mercury 

control has to take in to consideration retrofitting time frames that may be necessary to install the 

equipment and the availability of sorbents and associated hardware. These considerations are 

described below. 

Retrofitting time frames and availability of hardware 

A dry sorbent injection system is comprised of a storage silo, metering valves, blower and 

pneumatic material handling equipment, piping to the ductwork where injection occurs, and 

24
 
 

associated control hardware. Injection ports are typically installed on low-pressure ductwork. All 

of this equipment is standard hardware that is readily available. EPA estimated that about 15 

months would be needed from initial engineering review of technologies by the owner to 

completion of control technology testing for a PAC injection system without a retrofit FF.46 The 

outage could be a week or so due to the minor changes to the ductwork that would be needed for 

the PAC injection system. Retrofitting a PAC injection system becomes more complicated if a 

TOXECONTM arrangement is chosen. In that case, about 26 months would be needed from initial 

engineering review of technologies by the owner to completion of control technology testing for 

the PAC injection system. 

Since advanced sorbents will generally be injected at lower rates and specialized formulations, 

currently under development, may not adversely impact the value of the fly ash for beneficial 

reuse, there is a reduced likelihood that addition of a downstream FF or other PM control device 

modification will be needed. Therefore, retrofitting time frames for injection systems utilizing 

advanced sorbents should be the same as those for standard PAC systems without retrofit FF. 

Availability of Sorbents 

According to Norit, there is adequate excess capacity in the standard PAC market to absorb 

significant growth from current demand levels. However, if the regulations for mercury are 

passed, they would envision that plant(s) to supply this market would be built within 2-3 years.47 

In general, halogenated PAC sorbents are made from standard PAC materials and halogens. 

Based on indications from vendors, supply of PACs may not be a constraint in manufacturing 

adequate amounts of halogenated PACs to provide significant reductions if this technology is 

used. 

B-PAC is currently available from a facility capable of producing 1500 tons/year of sorbent. 

According to the vendor, production can be expanded in a six month period to meet market 

demand.27 

Data/Science Gaps and Associated Recommendations 

A number of chemical effects appear to be significant; however, they are not understood well 

enough to permit accurate prediction of sorbent performance under all circumstances, which may 

be desirable for design and selection of a sorbent injection system. Some of these effects include: 

•	 The impact that chlorine, or HCl, has on sorbent capacity to adsorb Hg0

 is recognized but 

not understood in a quantitative way. This is a particular problem for coals with low 

chlorine levels that produce mercury mostly in the form of Hg0

. 

•	 SO3 is known to interfere with mercury capture. But, like chlorine, a quantitative 

understanding is lacking. This is important for high sulfur boilers or those with flue gas 

conditioning. 

•	 Mercury concentration and speciation may influence the capture effectiveness of the 

sorbent. However, quantitative data on this effect is lacking. 

25
 
 

Improved understanding of the chemical effects may be addressed through continued lab and 

pilot programs in parallel with the full-scale demonstration programs. 

Mass transfer plays a critical role in influencing the effectiveness of a sorbent in capturing 

mercury, particularly for an application where mercury removal is largely in-flight. Some 

specific issues include: 

•	 The role of sorbent physical characteristics. Reference 24 suggested that particle size 

distribution plays an important role. 

•	 The relative importance of macro-scale (mixing of sorbent with the gas) versus microscale (diffusion at sorbent-gas interface) mass transfer processes under different 

conditions will guide sorbent injection system design. 

•	 The extent to which performance can be improved by improvements in sorbent injection 

and distribution methods should be evaluated. 

To improve understanding of mass-transfer effects, further development and validation of 

models, such as those described in Reference 24, should continue in combination with testing. 

There are a significant number of boilers with HS-ESPs. Advanced sorbents may have the 

potential to dramatically reduce the control cost for these units that might otherwise need to add 

a downstream FF at high capital cost. Although HS-ESP test programs are planned, none of the 

demonstration programs appear to address HS-ESPs on low rank fuels. This data gap may need 

to be addressed, especially with advanced sorbents. 

Efforts evaluating leaching of mercury and other metals from by products of PAC injection have 

generally shown that leaching of mercury does not appear to be a concern.48, 49 The EPA’s Office 

of Research and Development also has a program to evaluate the potential for leaching of metals 

from the management of mercury-enriched coal combustion residues (CCRs). To date, an 

evaluation of CCR’s from five coal-fired power plants has been completed - three facilities with 

activated carbon injection (ACI) and two with scrubbers. This includes analysis and 

quantification of the leaching potential for mercury and non-mercury metals (arsenic and 

selenium). Results have also been completed to evaluate mercury leaching potential for 5 

additional facilities representing 9 units. 

The findings to date indicate that, for most management practices, leaching of mercury from fly 

ash does not appear to be of concern for land disposal of CCRs from facilities with activated 

carbon injection (for both regular PAC and brominated PAC). The limited results from scrubber 

sludge samples suggest that further evaluation is warranted. Leaching results for arsenic and 

selenium do suggest a potential concern and warrant further evaluation. Efforts are underway to 

obtain additional CCRs from a wider-range of coal types and air-pollution control 

configurations. In addition, better information on CCR management practices is being obtained 

to help clarify and document the fate and transport of mercury and other metals. This is an ongoing research program within the EPA’s ORD. 

Some concern has been raised that the presence of brominated carbon may facilitate the 

formation of chlorinated and/or brominated organic air toxics (dioxins/furans) in the flue gas. 

26
 
 

 

In October 2004, the Department of Energy (DOE) sponsored an approximately 30-day 

continuous B-PAC injection demonstration at Detroit Edison’s St. Clair Power Plant. During this 

30-day demonstration, an EPA-contracted sampling team collected flue gas samples from Unit 

#1, a 160 MW boiler that was burning PRB coal. For the measured chlorinated and brominated 

dioxins/furans, only one test (of three) showed a discernible difference in the amount measured 

as compared to that from the corresponding blank sample. All chlorinated and brominated 

dioxin/furans measured from the testing at DTE St. Clair were at least an order of magnitude 

lower than the limit of 60 ng/dscm for large municipal waste combustor (MWC) units with an 

ESP-based APCS (there are currently no limits for coal-fired utility boilers). For this reason, 

ORD does not expect there to be any significant increase in the emission of either the chlorinated 

or then brominated dioxins/furans from a coal-fired boiler with the addition of B-PAC or other 

similar brominated activated carbon upstream of a CS-ESP, assuming typical operating 

temperatures and conditions. 

If dioxin/furan compounds were formed in the flue gas, it is likely that they may actually be 

captured by unburned carbon in the fly ash and/or on the injected PAC. Samples of the St. Clair 

fly ash were subjected to an organic extraction procedure to determine if there was enough 

brominated organic material to pursue a leaching test. The results were all in the single digit μg/g 

range. Based on this analysis, it was determined that any brominated compound that may leach 

from the fly ash would be at or below the analytical detection limit. 

MERCURY CONTROL COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH SORBENT INJECTION 

The cost of applying any technology is comprised of annualized capital costs, variable operating 

costs and fixed operating costs. The costs of a sorbent injection system are usually very small 

compared to other air pollution control equipment if addition of a PJFF or other major PM 

control device retrofit is not performed. According to Reference 50, capital costs for sorbent 

injection systems may be in the range of about $5/KW – sometimes less. Being simple pieces of 

equipment, the fixed operating costs for these systems are also relatively low. So, the major costs 

associated with a sorbent injection system are the cost of the sorbent and the disposal of 

additional material. 

Figure 19 shows estimates of the cost of sorbent and disposal of sorbent for sorbent injection 

upstream of a CS-ESP. Estimates are made using halogenated PAC sorbent cost of $1.00/lbf

 and 

PAC sorbent cost of $0.50/lb; disposal is estimated at a cost of $25/ton. As shown in Figure 19, 

halogenated PAC is estimated to provide up to about 90% removal at a cost of sorbent and 

disposal under 1 mill/kWhr (1 mill/kWhr = $1.00/MWhr). Costs for standard PAC are estimated 

to be greater than those for halogenated PAC due to the significantly higher injection rate that is 

necessary. At a capital recovery factor of 13.3% and a capacity factor of 80%, levelized capital 

charge is approximately 0.1 mills/kWhr, which is significantly less than the variable operating 

cost associated with sorbent injection and disposal. A potential cost that is not included here is 

the cost of fly ash disposal in the event that fly ash is currently being sold for beneficial reuse but 

f

 Vendors claim that halogenated PACs cost about $0.75/lb today. However, considering the more developmental 

nature of these sorbents and the fact that these are aimed at a relatively narrow market, conservatively $1.0/lb was 

assumed in this analysis. It is recognized, however, that if these sorbents are available at $0.75/lb under future 

market conditions, costs associated with their use will only be less than indicated. 

27
 
 

must be disposed of if contaminated with carbon. Since most plants do not currently sell their fly 

ash, this is not an incremental cost for them. However, for the minority of plants that sell their fly 

ash, the incremental costs are estimated to be in the range of 0.38 to 1 mill/kWhr, depending 

upon heating value and ash content of the coal and the heat rate of the unit and assuming a 

differential between fly ash revenues and disposal cost of $30/ton.50 

Figure 20 shows the results of similar cost calculations for PAC injection upstream of a FF. The 

cost advantage of halogenated PAC over standard PAC when injected upstream of a FF is not 

expected to be as great as when injected upstream of a CS-ESP. Regardless of the sorbent, 90% 

removal appears to be possible at sorbent and disposal costs well below 0.50 mills/KWhr when 

this technology is available (see a discussion of the outlook for technology availability in a 

subsequent section). For facilities that sell their fly ash for concrete, if the fly ash is rendered 

unmarketable, the differential cost to dispose of the fly ash is similar to that described above for 

CS-ESP. 

EXPECTED RESULTS IN NEXT TWO YEARS 

The ongoing research activities into control of mercury are proceeding at a rapid pace. Much has 

been learned in the last year, and more progress is anticipated over the next two years. There are 

several test programs planned over the next year that will explore: 

•	 Mercury capture by FGD and the impact of SCR on FGD capture. 

•	 Use of advanced sorbents in difficult configurations, such as HS-ESP, and sorbents that 

are formulated to work with concrete additives when ash is disposed. 

•	 Start up of the first commercial full-scale TOXECONTM system designed expressly to 

accommodate sorbent addition. 

•	 Testing of advanced sorbents at units with HS-ESPs without a downstream FF. 

•	 Methods to enhance capture of mercury by existing equipment by fuel additives, 

oxidizing chemicals, or oxidation catalysts upstream of FGD. 

•	 Methods to enhance capture of mercury by standard PAC or low cost sorbents using fuel 

additives, oxidizing chemicals, or oxidation catalysts upstream of FGD. 

•	 Further evaluation of the fate of mercury in wall-board produced from FGD by-product 

to assure that it does not become volatilized and released. 

Data available from above testing should help in advancing the development of a broad suite of 

viable mercury control approaches. 

OUTLOOK FOR TECHNOLOGY AVAILABILITY 

In order to examine the status of technology and the factors affecting its availability, Table 9 

summarizes the available information to reflect potentially viable mercury control approaches for 

various boiler configuration and coal type combinations. As can be appreciated from the 

information included in the table, technology availability will: (1) vary by boiler configuration 

and coal type; (2) depend on available data (direct and relevant) with much more data expected 

in the next 2 years; and (3) depend on regulatory framework, i.e., a spectrum from minimum risk 

to technology forcing. The principle concerns relating to broad-scale use of mercury controls are 

28
 
 

 

the reliability of mercury reductions possible and the risks of adverse side effects. To the extent 

that required mercury reductions are within the capabilities of the technology with minimum 

risks of side effects, mercury controls could be considered available. However, as discussed in 

this paper, there remain some questions regarding their performance relative to broad-scale use. 

These questions are being investigated in ongoing efforts. 

In the February 2004 ORD White Paper, it was projected that PAC injection technology would 

be available after 2010 for commercial application on all key combinations of coal type and 

control technology and that mercury removal levels in the 70% to 90% range could be 

achievable. In the same white paper, it was projected that enhanced multipollutant control 

systems (PM controls + dry FGD, PM controls + wet FGD, or SCR + PM controls + dry or wet 

FGD) would be available after 2010 to provide removal levels between 60 and 90 %. Finally, the 

February 2004 White Paper also projected that optimized multipollutant control would be able to 

provide 90-95% mercury removal for all coals after 2015. These projections assumed the funding 

and successful implementation of an aggressive, comprehensive RD&D program. 

As discussed in this document, since the release of the earlier White Paper, additional data, 

mostly from short-term tests, have become available on mercury control approaches for power 

plants. Also, a broad and aggressive RD&D program is underway, which will yield experience 

and data in the next few years. Accordingly, ORD continues to believe that PAC injection and 

enhanced multipollutant controls will be available after 2010 for commercial application on 

most, if not all, key combinations of coal type and control technology to provide mercury 

removal levels between 60 and 90%. However, considering the progress made with halogenated 

PAC sorbents and other chemical injection approaches, it is now believed that optimized 

multipollutant controls may be available in the 2010-2015 timeframe for commercial application 

on most, if not all, key combinations of coal type and control technology to provide mercury 

removal levels between 90 and 95%. Such optimized controls could include less expensive use 

of sorbent (PAC or halogenated PAC) injection with enhanced SCR and/or enhanced FGD 

systems. 

A national retrofit program can be initiated after the technology is available. However, full 

implementation of such a retrofit program would take a number of years to accomplish and 

achieve emission reductions, since large numbers of utilities would need time to order, design, 

fabricate and test such units. Based on EPA experience with coal-fired utility boiler retrofit 

technologies, we estimate that once a utility has signed a contract with a vendor, installation on a 

single boiler could be accomplished in the following timeframes: 

•	 Sorbent injection upstream of an existing ESP or FF could be installed with 

commissioning complete in six months to 1 year; 

•	 Sorbent injection upstream of a retrofit fabric filter (e.g., COHPAC) could be retrofitted to 

an existing ESP in under 2 years; 

•	 A new SCR/FGD/PM/mercury control system could be retrofitted in 2-3 years dependent 

on the retrofit difficultyg

; and, 

g

 It is important to note that due to the high capital cost of SCR and FGD, these technologies are not expected to be 

installed solely on the basis of mercury removal, but primarily on the basis of controlling other pollutants, because 

much less costly mercury removal methods are available. 

29
 
 

•	 Existing SCR or FGD to enhance mercury control could be retrofitted in about one to two 

years. 

The installation timeframes described above include the time periods associated with control 

technology fabrication, delivery, construction, and testing; approval of construction permit; and 

modification of operating permit. 

SUMMARY 

Although the potential mercury emissions from coal-fired U.S. utility boilers are calculated to be 

75 tons per year based on the mercury content in coal, the actual current emissions are estimated 

to be 48 tons per year due to mercury capture with pollution controls for PM and SO2. NOx 

controls can augment mercury capture in PM and SO2 control equipment. And, with increased use 

of NOx and SO2 pollution controls in the coming years as shown in Table 2, the co-benefit 

removal of mercury from these controls is expected to be significantly increased. Furthermore, it 

may be possible to operate these pollution controls in a way to improve mercury capture without 

sacrificing control of other pollutants. RD&D efforts aimed at enhancing mercury removal of 

existing controls in the next year should provide information on strategies to maximize mercury 

co-benefits. 

RD&D activities relating to sorbent injection for mercury removal over the last year have shown 

significant advances in this technology. Although most test programs have taken place over a few 

days, some have run for several weeks, and one has run for 6 months. These longer term tests 

have confirmed the performance of short term tests, and have also provided insights related to 

operating concerns expressed by plant personnel. At this time no serious adverse effects on the 

plant have been found with sorbent injection for tests up to one month in duration. Moreover, 

control approaches have been tested at the full scale and pilot scale under conditions that were 

previously shown to be difficult for standard PAC. These approaches, involving advanced 

sorbents, fuel blending, and fuel additives, appear to provide effective and less expensive means 

to address some of the mercury control difficulty previously identified with low rank coals. 

Halogenated PAC sorbents have shown particularly impressive results; they have been tested on a 

number of different facilities over a range of fuels and appear to capture mercury effectively for a 

given configuration regardless of fuel type. Also, no balance-of-plant impacts have been reported 

in field tests conducted thus far. 

Some key observations are as follows: 

1.	 Projections reflect that current and future NOX and SO2 emission reduction requirements are 

expected to result in growing use of SCR and scrubber systems at coal-fired utility boilers. 

Ongoing RD&D has the potential to provide the basis for enhanced mercury removal in such 

systems. Assuming sufficient RD&D of representative technologies, new and existing systems 

installed to control NOX and SO2 (e.g., SCR+FGD+FF) have the potential to achieve 90+% 

control of mercury on bituminous coal-fired boilers. Subbituminous and lignite systems 

appear to require mercury oxidation technology and/or additional advanced sorbents to 

achieve these levels. 

30
 
 

2.	 While co-benefit mercury removal from the flue gas of boilers firing low rank coals is 

generally lower than for bituminous coal, methods to improve co-benefit removal – such as 

fuel blending and fuel additives - have shown great promise. If successful, these approaches 

will narrow the difference between the various coals. 

3.	 While it is more difficult to remove mercury from the flue gas of boilers firing low rank coals 

with standard PAC injection, new halogenated sorbents appear to offer a very effective and 

less expensive alternative that can deliver higher removals than possible with standard PAC 

alone. However, longer-term demonstrations will be beneficial in that they will provide 

additional experience and data, which will build confidence in use of these new sorbents. 

4.	 Development and testing of new sorbents or additives has proceeded at a very rapid pace, and 

will likely continue to do so. Sorbent injection systems can be installed quickly and new 

sorbents or furnace additives can be tested relatively easily. This is in contrast to more capital 

intensive technologies like SCR or FGD, which require a long time to engineer and install the 

equipment or to make any significant changes to it, such as a catalyst change. Therefore, it is 

anticipated that the rapid pace of technology development for new sorbents and chemical 

additives will continue. 

5.	 There is increased appreciation for the importance of mass transfer in the sorbent capture 

process. Therefore, there is likely to be some improvement in performance due to improved 

injection methods, especially for in-flight removal. Such enhancements have the potential to 

improve performance for both standard and new sorbents. 

6.	 Halogenated PAC injection with a CS-ESP has the potential to achieve 90% mercury control. 

Standard PAC injection with an ESP (HS or CS) and a retrofit fabric filter, or a fabric filter 

alone, has the potential to achieve over 90% mercury reduction. Proper design and 

consideration of operational and residue impacts would need to be incorporated. 

7.	 The one application that remains particularly challenging is units with HS-ESP. This 

represents about 12% of current coal-fired capacity. Currently, retrofit of a downstream FF 

after the air preheater and sorbent injection prior to the FF is the only approach that has 

proven to be effective for these units at all load conditions. New sorbents have been tested for 

achieving mercury removal upstream of a HS-ESP. Promising results were achieved with 

these sorbents at part load conditions. With focused RD&D perhaps these sorbents can be 

improved to be effective at all load conditions. 

8.	 Cost estimates will vary depending upon specific conditions including regulatory structure. 

Nevertheless, for most units, it is projected that the mercury removal would add no more than 

about 2 mills/kWh to the annualized cost of power production. For many applications utilizing 

halogenated PAC sorbents, costs are projected to be generally lower than 1 mill/kWh. For the 

minority of plants that sell their fly ash and this sale is impacted due to mercury control, the 

incremental costs, associated with waste disposal and lost revenue due to impact on fly ash 

sale, are estimated to be in the range of 0.38 to 1 mill/kWhr. Control by enhancing/optimizing 

cobenefit mercury removal in FGD and SCR systems has the potential to reduce costs 

substantially, since optimized systems may require little additional investment and/or 

operational costs, especially for bituminous coals. 

9.	 It is believed that PAC injection and enhanced multipollutant controls will be available after 

2010 for commercial application on most, if not all, key combinations of coal type and control 

technology to provide mercury removal levels between 60 and 90%. Also optimized 

multipollutant controls may be available in the 2010-2015 timeframe for commercial 

application on most, if not all, key combinations of coal type and control technology to 

31
 
 

provide mercury removal levels between 90 and 95%. Such optimized controls could include 

less expensive use of sorbent (PAC or halogenated PAC) injection with enhanced SCR and/or 

enhanced FGD systems. It is noted, however, that broad scale commercial application of 

control technology to remove mercury will be possible after the technology is available. 

Therefore, initiation of a potential national retrofit program could take place after the 

technology is available and such a program would take a number of years to fully implement. 

Based on EPA experience with coal-fired utility boiler retrofit technologies, we estimate that 

once a utility has signed a contract with a vendor, installation on a single boiler could be 

accomplished in the following timeframes: 

•	 Sorbent injection upstream of an existing ESP or FF could be installed with 

commissioning complete in six months to 1 year; 

•	 Sorbent injection upstream of a retrofit fabric filter (e.g., COHPAC) could be retrofitted 

to an existing ESP in under 2 years; 

•	 A new SCR/FGD/PM/mercury control system could be retrofitted in 2-3 years 

dependent on the retrofit difficulty; and, 

•	 Existing SCR or FGD to enhance mercury control could be retrofitted in about one to 

two years. 

The installation timeframes described above include the time periods associated with control 

technology fabrication, delivery, construction, and testing; approval of construction permit; 

and modification of operating permit. 

32
 
 

 

 

 

Table 1. General Characteristics of Coals Burned in U. S. Power Plants 

 Mercury Chlorine Sulfur Ash HHV* 

ppm (dry) ppm (dry) % (dry) % (dry) BTU/lb (dry) 

Coal Range Avg Range Avg Range Avg Range Avg Range Avg 

Bit 0.036 - 

0.279 

0.113 48 ­

2730 

1033 0.55 ­

4.10 

1.69 5.4 - 

27.3 

11.1 8646 - 

14014 

13203 

Subbit. 0.025 - 

0.136 

0.071 51 ­

1143 

158 0.22 ­

1.16 

0.50 4.7 - 

26.7 

8.0 8606 - 

13168 

12005 

Lignite 0.080 - 

0.127 

0.107 133 - 

233 

188 0.8 - 

1.42 

1.30 12.2 ­

24.6 

19.4 9487 - 

10702 

10028 

* Higher Heating Value 

33
 
 

 

Table 2. Projected Coal-Fired Capacity by APC Configuration 

APC Configuration Current 

Capacity, MW 

2010 Capacity, 

MW 2020 Capacity, MW 

Cold-side ESP 111,616 75,732 48,915 

Cold-side ESP + Wet Scrubber 41,745 34,570 33,117 

Cold-side ESP + Wet Scrubber + ACI - 379 379 

Cold-side ESP + Dry Scrubber 2,515 3,161 5,403 

Cold-side ESP + SCR 45,984 35,312 22,528 

Cold-side ESP + SCR + Wet Scrubber 27,775 62,663 98,138 

Cold-side ESP + SCR + Dry Scrubber - 11,979 13,153 

Cold-side ESP + SNCR 7,019 4,576 2,534 

Cold-side ESP + SNCR + Wet Scrubber 317 2,830 6,088 

Fabric Filter 11,969 10,885 7,646 

Fabric Filter + Dry Scrubber 8,832 8,037 9,163 

Fabric Filter + Wet Scrubber 4,960 4,960 4,960 

Fabric Filter + Dry Scrubber + ACI - 195 195 

Fabric Filter + SCR 2,210 2,950 1,330 

Fabric Filter + SCR + Dry Scrubber 2,002 2,601 4,422 

Fabric Filter + SCR + Wet Scrubber 805 805 2,363 

Fabric Filter + SNCR 267 267 345 

Fabric Filter + SNCR + Dry Scrubber 559 557 557 

Fabric Filter + SNCR + Wet Scrubber 932 932 1,108 

Hot-side ESP 18,929 11,763 10,160 

Hot-side ESP + Wet Scrubber 8,724 10,509 10,398 

Hot-side ESP + Dry Scrubber - 538 538 

Hot-side ESP + SCR 5,952 3,233 1,847 

Hot-side ESP + SCR + Wet Scrubber 688 6,864 9,912 

Hot-side ESP + SNCR 684 1,490 1,334 

Hot-side ESP + SNCR + Wet Scrubber 474 474 627 

Total Existing Units 304,955 298,263 297,161 

New Builds of Coal Steam Units 

Current 

Capacity, MW 

2010 Capacity, 

MW 2020 Capacity, MW 

Fabric Filter + SCR + Wet Scrubber - 221 17,292 

Total All Units 304,955 298,484 314,453 

Note: IGCC units are not included as part of this list. 

Note: Current capacity includes some SCR and FGD projected to be built in 2005 and 2006 

Note: 2010 and 2020 is capacity projected for final CAIR rule 

Note: IPM projects some coal retirements and new coal in 2010 and 2020 

34
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 3. Scrubber testing with SCR and/or additive to reduce re-emission of Hg0 and improve mercury 

capture. 

Test Site Information Mercury Capturury Capture Across 

Scrubber, % Scrubber, % 

Test/Observationbservation 

Test Site Coal Controls Elemental Oxidized Total 

Dominion 

Resources 

Mount Storm 

Mediumsulfur 

Eastern 

SCR, Cold-side 

ESP, 

limestone forced 

-15% > 90% 71% 4-day; SCR by-passed; no 

additive/Hg(0) re-emission 

Power Station 

Unit 2, 563 MW 

bituminous oxidation FGD 30% > 90% 78% 4-day; SCR by-passed; 

with additive/no reemission of Hg(0) 

0 > 95% > 90% 6-day; SCR on-line; no 

additive/no re-emission of 

Hg(0) and higher Hg 

removal 

0 > 95% > 90% 7-day; SCR on-line; with 

additive/no re-emission of 

Hg(0) and higher Hg 

removal; no effect from 

additive 

35
 
 

 

Table 4. PAC test programs on power plant flue gases. 

APC 

Configuration 

Coal Type 

Bituminous Subbituminous Lignite 

CS-ESP Hudsonp 

Brayton Point 1 

Salem Harbor 1 

Yates 1, 2 

Valleyp 

Lausche 

Miami Fort 

Allen 

Conesville 

Pleasant Prairie 1 

Powertonp 

(TOXECON) 

St. Clair 1 

Meramec 

Millerp 

Nantikoke 

Leland Olds 1 

Coal Creek 

Stanton 1 

Poplar River 1, 2 

HS-ESP Gaston 3 (TOXECON) 

Cliffside 

none none 

FF none Comanche 2p 

Pleasant Prairie 1, 2p

 TOXECON 

Presque Isle 7-9 

TOXECON 

Spruce 

SDA-FF none Holcomb Stanton 10 

Antelope Valley 1 

PS none Laskin 2 none 

p: denotes pilot test 

Italic denotes program not yet completed 

Table 5. Relatively short-term PAC injection field test projects. 

Test Site Information 

Mercury Capture, % 

Test Site Coal Particulate 

Control 

Baseline ACI Test 

Results 

“Long-term” Test 

Duration* 

PG&E NEG 

Brayton Point, Unit 1 

Low-sulfur 

Bituminous 

Two CS-ESPs 

in Series 

90.8 94.5 ACI for two 5-day 

periods 

PG&E NEG 

Salem Harbor, Unit 1 

Low-sulfur 

Bituminous 

CS-ESP 90 94 ACI for one 4-day 

period 

Wisconsin Electric 

Pleasant Prairie, Unit 

2 

Subbituminous CS-ESP 5 65 ACI for one 5-day 

period 

Alabama Power 

Gaston, Unit 3 

Low-sulfur 

Bituminous 

HS-ESP + 

COHPAC 

0 25-90 ACI for one 9-day 

period 

University of Illinois 

Abbott Station 

High-sulfur 

Bituminous 

CS-ESP 0 73 

* At these plants, both short-term parametric and “long-term” continuous tests were conducted. 

In each of these tests the “long-term” testing lasted less than 10 days. 

36 
 

Table 6. Speciated mercury results from ACI field tests. 

 Particulate Elemental Oxidized Total 

 (μg/dNm3

) (μg/dNm3) (μg/dNm3) (μg/dNm3) 

Pleasant Prairie (Baseline) 

ESP Inlet 

 

1.97 12.22 

 

2.51 16.71 

ESP Outlet 0.01 9.8 6.01 15.82 

Removal Efficiency (%) 

Pleasant Prairie (ACI, 11 lbs/MMacf) 

ESP Inlet 

99.49 

 

1 

19.8 

14.7 

* 

 

1.7 

5.27 

17.4 

ESP Outlet 0 4.3 0.4 4.7 

Removal Efficiency (%) 100 70.75 76.47 72.99 

Salem Harbor (Baseline) 

ESP Inlet 

 

10.15 < 0.27 

 

0.09 < 10.51 

ESP Outlet < 0.34 < 0.50 0.41 < 1.25 

Removal Efficiency (%) 

Salem Harbor (ACI, 10 lbs/MMacf) 

ESP Inlet 

> 96 

 

4.9 

* 

< 0.27 

* 

 

0.07 

≅ 88 

< 5.24 

ESP Outlet < 0.09 < 0.51 0.02 < 0.62 

Removal Efficiency (%) > 98 * 71.43 ≅ 88 

Gaston (Baseline) 

COHPAC Inlet 

 

0.1 5.5 

 

8.8 14.4 

COHPAC Outlet 0 3.1 10.4 13.5 

Removal Efficiency (%) 

Gaston (ACI injection, 1.5 lbs/MMacf) 

COHPAC Inlet 

100 

 

0.2 

43.64 

4.2 

* 

 

5.9 

6.25 

10.3 

COHPAC Outlet 0.1 < 0.1 0.8 1 

Removal Efficiency (%) 50 > 97 86.44 90.29 

* Efficiency calculation not appropriate because outlet value is greater than inlet value. 

37
 

Table 7. Full-scale halogenated PAC testing. 

Coal Type PM 

Control 

Hg 

Removal 

(%) 

Sorbent 

Injection 

Rate 

(lb/Mmacf) 

Plant Testing

Period Duration 

Sub-bit Blend CS ESP 94 B-PAC 3.0 St. Clair Oct-04 30 day continuous 

Sub-bit Blend SD/FF 93 E-3 1.2 Holcomb Jun-04 30 day continuous 

Sub-bit CS ESP 80-90+ E-3 4.0 - 4.5 Meramec Oct-04 10 day continuous 

 

Bit High-S CS ESP 70 B-PAC 4.0 Lausche Jan-03 2 - 3 hr tests 

Bit Low-S HS ESP >80 B-PAC 6.4 Cliffside (minimum load) Sep-03 2 wks parametric 

 40 B-PAC 5.7 Cliffside (full load) do do 

Lignite SD/FF 95 B-PAC 1.5 Stanton 10 early 2004 2 hr parametric 

Lignite * 70 B-PAC 1.5 Stanton 10 early 2004 2 hr parametric 

Lignite SD/FF 95 E-3 1.5 Stanton 10 early 2004 2 hr parametric 
Table 8. Speciated mercury results from halogenated PAC injection field tests. 

 Particulate Elemental Oxidized Total 

 (μg/dNm3

) (μg/dNm3) (μg/dNm3) (μg/dNm3) 

Meramac (Baseline) 

ESP Inlet 

 

3.54 9.03 2.2 14.77 

ESP Outlet 0 6.57 2.73 9.3 

Removal Efficiency (%) 

Meramac (E-3 injection, 3 lbs/MMacf) 

ESP Inlet 

100 

 

3.2 

27.2 

3.8 

* 

3.1 

37.03 

10.1 

ESP Outlet 0 0.4 0.2 0.6 

Removal Efficiency (%) 99.9 89.47 93.55 94.06 

Holcomb (Baseline) 

Inlet 

 

0.47 7.71 2.38 10.56 

Outlet 0.01 10.75 0.47 11.23 

Removal Efficiency (%) 

Holcomb (E-3 injection, 1.2 lbs/MMacf) 

Inlet 

97.87 

 

0.01 

* 

8.49 

80.25 

0.9 

* 

9.4 

Outlet 0 0.39 0.1 0.49 

Removal Efficiency (%) 100 95.4 88.89 94.8 

St. Clair (Baseline) 

ESP Inlet 

 

0.11 7.18 0.61 7.9 

ESP Outlet < 0.01 6.99 4.24 11.23 

Removal Efficiency (%) 

St. Clair (B-PAC injection, 3 lbs/MMacf) 

ESP Inlet 

> 90.9 

0.26 

2.65 

 

7.11 

* 

0.97 

* 

8.08 

ESP Outlet < 0.1 0.38 0.55 0.93 

Removal Efficiency (%) > 61 94.66 43.3 87.65 

*Efficiency calculation not appropriate because outlet value is greater than inlet value.

38
 
 

Table 9. Potentially most-suitable mercury control approaches for various boiler configuration and coal 

type combinations. 

Coal/Technology, 

(Capacity, %)h 

Incremental 

Mercury 

Control 

Direct 

Experiencei 

Relevant 

Experiencej 

Remaining Issues Ongoing Efforts 

Subbit + CS-ESP – 

w/ or w/o SCR 

(~66 GW, 22.3%) 

Hal-PAC > 90% St. 

Clair (80 MW 

tested); 80­

90% 

Meramec (70 

MW tested) 

None a) Direct 

experience with 

longer-term 

testing; testing 

with larger duct 

sizes; air toxics; 

ESP impacts, 

residue impacts; 

long-term 

corrosion; sorbent 

supply. 

DOE Phase II 

Round 1: 30-day 

testing with E-3 at 

DTE Monroe 4 

(375 MW), 

November 2005 

DOE Phase II 

Round 2: 30-day 

continuous testing 

with B-PAC at 

Midwest Gen 

Crawford 7 (100 

MW), TBD 

DOE Phase II 

Round 2: testing 

with Alstom’s 

enhanced sorbent 

at PacificCorp. 

Dave Johnston 

plant, TBD 

Low-S bit + CS-ESP 

– w/ or w/o SCR 

(~ 55 GW, 18.6%) 

Hal-PAC None > 90% St. 

Clair (80 MW 

tested); 80­

90% Meramec 

(70 MW 

tested) 

Same as a) DOE Phase II 

Round 2: 30-day 

continuous testing 

with B-PAC at 

Progress E. Lee 1 

(80 MW), TBD 

DOE Phase II 

Round 2: testing 

with Alstom’s 

enhanced sorbent 

at Reliant En. 

Portland unit, TBD 

 

h These numbers were generated using the following approach: (1) current capacity numbers are from information in Table 2; (2) 

breakdown of coal production was taken from DOE Energy Information Administration, Annual Coal Report 2003, Table 6, 

available at (http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/acr/table6.html). This reflected production of bituminous, subbituminous, 

and lignite in 2003 of 51.5%, 41.3%, and 7.7%, respectively; (3) coal production pattern was considered to be similar to usage in 

electric utilities; (4) coal usage pattern was approximated to 50% bituminous, 40% subbituminous, 5% ND lignite, and 5% TX 

lignite; and (5) 1/3 of bituminous coal consumed in power plants was considered to be high-sulfur and the remaining 2/3 was 

assumed to be low-sulfur. 

i Direct experience is where experience is available with the exact combination of coal type, existing control technology, and 

mercury technology. j Relevant experience is where applicable experience appears to be available even though not with the exact combination of coal 

type, existing control technology, and mercury technology. 

39
 
 

Table 9. Potentially most-suitable mercury control approaches for various boiler configuration and coal 

type combinations; (continued). 

Coal/Technology, 

(Capacity, %) 

Incremental 

Mercury 

Control 

Direct 

Experience 

Relevant 

Experience 

Remaining Issues Ongoing 

Efforts 

Hi-S bit + CS-ESP + Hal-PAC None 70% Lausche Same as a) + DOE Phase II 

wet FGD (~42 GW, (18 MW impact on FGD Round 1: 30-day 

14.2%) tested) testing with E-3 at 

AEP Conesville 

(500 MW), June 

2005 

Coal + HS-ESP TOXECON; >90% Gaston None b) Direct DOE Phase II 

(~35 GW, 12.0%) possibly HalPAC (135 MW 

tested) 

experience with 

longer-term 

testing; FF 

impacts, residue 

impacts; sorbent 

supply. 

Round 1: 30-day 

continuous testing 

with B-PAC at 

Duke En. Buck 5 

(140 MW), low-S 

bit., spring 2005 

DOE Phase II 

Round 2: 2-week 

parametric test 

with B-PAC at 

Progress En. Lee 

2 (75 MW), low-S 

bit., TBD 

DOE Phase II 

Round 2: 2-week 

parametric test 

with B-PAC at 

Midwest Gen Will 

County 3 (130 

MW), TBD 

Hi-S bit + CS-ESP + Hal-PAC None >80% various Same as a) + 

SCR + wet FGD (trim), if data on wet impact on FGD 

(~28 GW, 9.4%) needed. SCR 

+ FGD should 

provide high 

removal. 

FGD + SCR; 

70% Lausche 

(18 MW 

tested) 

40
 
 

Table 9. Potentially most-suitable mercury control approaches for various boiler configuration and coal 

type combinations; (continued). 

Coal/Technology, 

(Capacity, %) 

Incremental 

Mercury 

Control 

Direct 

Experience 

Relevant 

Experience 

Remaining Issues Ongoing Efforts 

Hi-S bit + CS-ESP – TOXECON None (coal ICR data and Same as b) 

w/ or w/o SCR (~27 effects less > 90% Gaston 

GW, 9.3%) significant 

with FF) 

(135 MW 

tested) 

ND Lignite + CSESP – w/ or w/o 

SCR 

(~8 GW, 2.8%) 

Hal-PAC None > 90% St. 

Clair (80 MW 

tested); 80­

90% Meramec 

(70 MW 

tested) 

Same as a) DOE Phase II 

Round 2: testing 

with Alstom’s 

enhanced sorbent at 

Basin Electric 

Leyland Olds, TBD 

TX Lignite + CSESP – w/ or w/o 

SCR 

(~8 GW, 2.8%) 

Hal-PAC None > 90% St. 

Clair (80 MW 

tested); 80­

90% Meramec 

(70 MW 

tested) 

Same as a) DOE Phase II 

Round 2: 30-day 

testing with PAC 

and advanced 

sorbent (TBD) at 

TXU Big Brown 

(300 MW), 

TOXECON 

configuration, TBD 

Low-S bit + FF – w/ PAC None (high ICR data and Same as b) 

or w/o SCR (~ 7 intrinsic > 90% Gaston 

GW, 2.4%) removal 

expected) 

(135 MW 

tested) 

Subbit + FF – w/ or PAC Comanche 2 ICR data; > Same as b) 

w/o SCR pilot (600 90% Gaston 

(~6 GW, 2.0%) acfm tested) - 

>90% 

possible. 

Good 

performance 

expected with 

FF. 

(135 MW 

tested) 

41
 
 

Table 9. Potentially most-suitable mercury control approaches for various boiler configuration and coal 

type combinations; (continued). 

Coal/Technology, 

(Capacity, %) 

Incremental 

Mercury 

Control 

Direct 

Experience 

Relevant 

Experience 

Remaining Issues Ongoing Efforts 

Medium-S bit + PAC (trim), if None (high ICR data and > Same as b) 

SD+FF – w/ or w/o needed intrinsic 90% Gaston 

SCR (~6 GW, 1.9%) removal 

expected) 

(135 MW 

tested) 

Subbit + SD+FF – 

w/ or w/o SCR 

(~5 GW, 1.5%) 

Hal-PAC > 90% 

Holcomb (360 

MW tested) 

None Same as a); duct 

size may not be an 

issue for FF 

applications 

ND Lignite + FF – 

w/ or w/o SCR 

(~0.7 GW, 0.2%) 

PAC None. Good 

performance 

expected with 

FF. 

Comanche 2 

pilot (600 

acfm) - >90% 

possible 

ICR data; > 

90% Gaston 

(135 MW 

tested) 

Same as b) 

ND Lignite + 

SD+FF – w/ or w/o 

SCR 

(~0.5 GW, 0.2%) 

Hal-PAC > 90% 

Stanton 

MW test

10 (60 

ed) 

None Same as a); duct 

size may not be an 

issue for FF 

applications 

TX Lignite + FF – 

w/ or w/o SCR 

(~0.7 GW, 0.2%) 

PAC None. Good 

performance 

expected with 

FF. 

Comanche 2 

pilot (600 acfm 

tested) - >90% 

possible 

ICR data; > 

90% Gaston 

(135 MW 

tested) 

Same as b) 

TX Lignite + SD+FF 

– w/ or w/o SCR 

(~0.5 GW, 0.2%) 

Hal-PAC None. Good 

performance 

expected with 

FF. 

> 90% Stanton 

10 (60 MW 

tested) 

Same as a); duct 

size may not be an 

issue for FF 

applications 

42
 
Figure 1. Projected coal-fired capacity with FGD 

200
 

180
 

160
 

140
 

120
 

100
 

80
 

60
 

40
 

20
 

0
 

Current 2010 2015
 

CAIR Retrofits 

Existing or CAA Title IV/State Retrofit 

GW 

Figure 2. Projected coal-fired capacity with SCR 

200
 

180
 

160
 

140
 

120
 

GW 

Current 2010 2015
 

100
 

80
 

60
 

40
 

20
 

0
 

CAIR Retrofits 

Existing or NOx SIP Call/State Retrofit 

43
 
Figure 3. Mercury removal rates measured for various coal types and air pollution control configurations 

(from EPA ICR data, 1999). 

Bituminous Coal Sub-bituminous Coal Lignite
 100
 100 100
 

90
 90 90
 

80
 80 80 

Mercury Removal (%) 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0

CS-ESPHS-ESP

FF

FF/SDA

CS-ESP/FGDHS-ESP/FGD 

CS-ESPHS-ESP

FF

FF/SDA

CS-ESP/FGDHS-ESP/FGD 

CS-ESP

CS-ESP/FF

FF/SDA

CSESP/FGD 

Figure 4. Effect of liquid-to-gas ratio on mercury emission at common operating pH values.51 

44
 
Figure 5. Mercury removal of various FGD systems 

0 

10 

20 

30 

40 

50 

60 

70 

80 

90 

100 

S2: ESP+MEL-Bit_1

C8: ESP/MEL-Bit

Ca: MEL

Cf: MEL

Zimmer: ESP MEL

S4: Lime Ven-Bit_1S4: Lime Ven-Bit_2

S5: ESP+LSFO-Bit

C5_2: ESP+LSFO-Bit

Cb:LSFO

Endicott: ESP+LSFO

Mt. Storm: SCR+ESP+LSFO

Cd: Chiyoda

Cc: LSNOCe: LSNO

C1: SDA/FF-BitC2: SDA/FF-Bit 

Hg Removal (%) 

% Hg(total) Removal w /o SCR 

% Hg(total) Removal w / SCR 

MEL Lime 

Venturi 

LSFO JBR LSNO SDA 

45
 
 

 

Oxidized Hg into ESP (%) 

Figure 6. Percent oxidized mercury into ESP. 

0 

10 

20 

30 

40 

50 

60 

70 

80 

90 

100 

% Hg(2+) - no SCR 

% Hg(2+) - w ith SCR 

S1: ESP-PRB

S2: ESP+MELBit_1

S2: ESP+MELBit_2

S3: ESP-Bit

S4: Lime VenBit_1

S4: Lime VenBit_2

S5: ESP+LSFOBit

S6:ESP-Bit

C1: SDA/FF-Bit

C2: SDA/FF-Bit

C8: ESP/MEL-Bit

Mt. Storm:

SCR+ESP+LSFO
 

Note: there is a possible sam pling artifact with S3 

46
 
Figure 7. Options for enhancing mercury capture in existing air pollution controls. 

Coal & Air

Oxidizing

Chemicals

Wet Scrubber

SCR

Oxidizing

Catalysts

Residue

Stack

Ash

PM Control

Coal & Air 

Oxidizing 

Chemicals 

Wet Scrubber 

SCR 

Oxidizing 

Catalysts 

Residue 

Stack 

Ash 

PM Control 

47
 
Figure 8. Parametric test results of mercury removal by standard PAC- all data using Norit FGD. 

0 

10 

20 

30 

40 

50 

60 

70 

80 

90 

100 

Hg removal by PAC (%)

Gaston, Bit, COHPAC 

PPPP, Subbit, CS-ESP 

Brayton, Bit, CS-ESP 

PAC-Pilot-Subbit-FF 

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 

Injection Rate (lb/MMacf) 

Figure 9. Results of relatively long-term PAC testing at Gaston 52 

48
 
Figure 10. Comparison of mercury removal by B-PAC to that by standard PAC for injection upstream of 

CS-ESP; standard PAC data is with Norit FGD. 

100
 

90
 

Hg removal by PAC Injection (%)

80 

70 

60 

50 

10 

20 

30 

40 BPAC-PPPP ESP Pilot 

BPAC S10, Lignite (in flight after SDA) 

BPAC St Clair, Sub, ESP 

PAC St. Clair, Sub, ESP 

PAC at PPPP 

Brayton, Bit, CS-ESP 

0 

0 5 10 15 20 

Injection Rate (lb/MMacf) 

25 30 35 

Figure 11. Comparison of mercury removal by B-PAC to that by standard PAC for injection upstream of 

FF; standard PAC data is with Norit FGD. 

100
 

90
 

Hg removal b y PAC Injection (%)80 

70 

60 

50 

10 

20 

30 

40 Gas ton, Bit, COHPAC 

PAC-Pilot-Subbit-FF 

PAC, Valley, Bit, Pilot FF 

BPAC, Valley, Bit, Pilot FF 

BPAC, S10, Lig, SDA/FF 

PAC, S10, Lig, SDA/FF 

0 

0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 

Injection Rate (lb/MMacf) 

 

49
 
 

Figure 12. Performance of B-PAC in parametric tests are shown for in-flight and upstream of a fabric 

filter for various coal types. 

0 

10 

20 

30 

40 

50 

60 

70 

80 

90 

100 

Hg removal by PAC Injection (%)

BPAC-PPPP ESP Pilot 

BPAC S10, Lignite (in flight after SDA) 

BPAC St Clair, Sub, ESP 

BPAC, S10, Lig, SDA/FF 

BPAC, Valley, Bit, Pilot FF 

0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 

Injection Rate (lb/MMacf) 

 

Figure 13. Performance of halogenated PACs versus that with standard PACs.53 

50
 
Figure 14. Results from DOE-sponsored 30-day full-scale testing at DTE St. Clair 80 MW boiler with 

CS-ESP, firing PRB and an 85:15 PRB:bituminous blend and using B-PAC.54 

Figure 15. 10-day results from DOE-sponsored full-scale testing at Ameren Meramec 70 MW Unit 2 

with CS-ESP, firing PRB and using Norit E-3.55 

51
 
 

Figure 16. Results from DOE-sponsored 30-day full-scale testing at Holcomb 360 MW boiler with 

SD+FF, firing PRB blend and using Norit E-3. 55 

Figure 17. Calculated incremental particulate loading in the flue gas from sorbent injection 

0.00 

0.50 

1.00 

1.50 

2.00 

2.50 

3.00 

3.50 

4.00 

4.50 

Incremental Loading (%)

OH bit. 

PRB 

ND Lignite 

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 

Sorbent Injection Rate (lb/MMacf) 

52
 
Figure 18. ESP power behavior at Brayton Point with increase in PAC injection rate. 56 

250
 40
 

ESP Total Power (KW) 200
 30
 

150
 

20
 

100
 

10 50
 

0
 0 

7/13/02 0:00 7/16/02 0:00 7/19/02 0:00 7/22/02 0:00 Injection Concentration

(lbs/MMacf) 

53
 
Figure 19. Estimated sorbent and disposal costs for sorbent injection upstream of a CS-ESP. 

100
 

90
 

Hg removal by Sorbent Injection (%)

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

BPAC In Flight, Param etric 

PAC In Flight Sub/Lig 

PAC In Flight Bit 

0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 

Sorbent and Sorbent Disposal Cost (mills/KWhr) 

Figure 20. Estimated sorbent and disposal costs for sorbent injection upstream of an FF. 

100
 

90
 

Hg removal by Sorbent Injection (%)

80 

70 

60 

50 

40 

30 

20 

10 

0 

BPAC FF 

PAC Sub, FF 

PAC Bit, FF 

0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 

Sorbent and Sorbent Disposal Cost (mills/KWhr) 

54
 
 

 

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1 Study of Hazardous Air Pollutant Emissions from Electric Utility Steam Generating Units 

– Final Report to Congress, Volume 1, Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC; EPA-453R-98­

004a, February 1998; (NTIS PB98-131774). 

2 Proposed National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants; and, in the 

alternative, Proposed Standards of Performance for New and Existing Stationary 

Sources: Electric Utility Steam Generating Units; Proposed Rule, Federal Register, 40 

CFR Parts 60 and 73, January 30, 2004. 

3 Control of Mercury Emissions from Coal-fired Electric Utility Boilers, Air Pollution 

Prevention and Control Division, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, 

Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research 

Triangle Park, NC, February 26, 2004. 

4 An Assessment of Mercury Emissions from U.S. Coal-Fired Power Plants, EPRI 

Technical Report 1000608, October 2000. 

5 Krolewski, M., U.S. EPA (Clean Air Markets Division-Washington, DC), personal 

communication with Srivastava, R.K., U.S. EPA (NRMRL-RTP, NC), November 2004. 

6 Mercury in U.S. Coal – Abundance, Distribution, and Modes of Occurrence, USGS Fact 

Sheet FS-095-01, September 2001. 

7 Control of Mercury Emissions from Coal-Fired Electric Utility Boilers: Interim Report, 

Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division, National Risk Management Research 

Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC; EPA-600/R-01-109, April 2002. 

8 Livengood, C.D., Mendelsohn, M.H., Lani, B.W., “The Chemistry of Mercury 

Oxidation”, DOE/NETL Mercury Control Technology R&D Program Review, 

Pittsburgh, PA, July 14-15, 2004 

9 Niksa, S., Fujiwara, N., “Predicting Complete Hg Speciation Along Coal-Fired Utility 

Exhaust Systems”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined Utility Air Pollution Control 

Symposium, The Mega Symposium, Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 2004. 

10 Niksa, S., Fujiwara, N., “The Impact of Wet FGD Scrubbing On Hg Emissions From 

Coal-Fired Power Stations”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined Utility Air Pollution 

Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 

2004. 

11 Nolan, P., Downs, W., Bailey, R., Vecci, S., “Use of Sulfide Containing Liquors for 

Removing Mercury from Flue Gases”, US Patent # 6,503,470, January 7, 2003. 

12 Renninger, S., Farthing, G., Ghorishi, S.B., Teets, C., Neureuter, J., “Effects of SCR 

Catalyst, Ammonia Injection and Sodium Hydrosulfide on the Speciation and Removal of 

Mercury within a Forced-Oxidized Limestone Scrubber”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA 

Combined Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, 

Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 2004. 

13 Winberg, S., Winthum, J., Tseng, S., Locke, J., “Evaluation of Mercury Emissions from 

Coal-Fired Facilities with SCR-FGD Systems”, DOE/NETL Mercury Control 

Technology R&D Program Review, Pittsburgh, PA, July 14-15, 2004. 

55
 
 

 

14 Nolan, P., Reddinger, K., Amrhein, G., Kudlac, G. “Mercury Emissions Control in Wet 

FGD Systems”, Air Quality III, Crystal City, VA, September 9-12, 2002. 

15 Chu, P., Laudal, D., Brickett, L., Lee, C.W., “ Power Plant Evaluation of the Effect of 

SCR Technology on Mercury”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined Utility Air Pollution 

Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, Washington, D.C., May 19-22, 2003. 

16 Cabral, N.J., “Comments of American Coal for Balanced Mercury Regulations,” EPA 

docket item OAR-2002-0056-5478, December 2004. 

17 Senior, C.L, and Linjewile, T., “ Oxidation of Mercury Across SCR Catalysts in CoalFired Power Plants”, DOE/NETL Mercury Control Technology R&D Program Review, 

Pittsburgh, PA, July 14-15, 2004. 

18 Sjostrom, S., Starns, T., Amrhein, J., Bustard, J., Durham, M., Penrod, W., Linville, C., 

O’Palko, A., Chang, R., “Full-Scale Evaluation of Mercury Control by Injecting 

Activated Carbon Upstream of a Spray Dryer and Fabric Filter”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA 

Combined Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, 

Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 2004. 

19 Richardson, C., Machalek, T., Marsh, B., Miller, S., Richardson, M., Chang, R., Strohfus 

M., Smokey, S., Hagley, T., Juip G., Rosvold, R., “Chemical Addition for Mercury 

Control in Flue Gas Derived from Western Coals” Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined 

Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, Washington, D.C., 

May 19-22, 2003. 

20 DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory Mercury Field Evaluation – PG&E NEG 

Salem Harbor Station – Unit 1, Project No. 00-7002-76-10, Field Evaluation Summary 

Report, January 2003. 

21 McDonald, D. K., Amrhein, G. T., Kudlac, G. A., Madden Yurchison, D., “Full-Scale 

Testing of Enhanced Mercury Control Technologies for Wet FGD Systems”, Final 

Report, U. S. Department of Energy Contract DE-FC26-00NT41006, May 7, 2003. 

22 Data provided by Jean Bustard, ADA Environmental Services, September 16, 2002. 

23 Durham, M., “Field Test Program to Develop Comprehensive Design, Operating and 

Cost Data for Mercury Control”, DOE/NETL Mercury Control Technology R&D 

Program Review, Pittsburgh, PA, August 12, 2003. 

24 Cremer, M., Senior, C., Chiodo, A., Wang, D., Valentine, J., “CFD Modeling of 

Activated Carbon Injection for Mercury Control in Coal Fired Power Plants”, Joint EPRI 

DOE EPA Combined Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, 

Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 2004.; Note: the presented results supersede 

the results discussed in the paper, and the author should be contacted for the presentation 

rather than using the conference paper provided in the conference proceedings. Contact 

senior@reaction-eng.com 

25 Madsen, J., O’Brien, T., Rogers, W., Cugini, A., “Computational Modeling of Mercury 

Capture by Activated Carbon Injection”, DOE/NETL Mercury Control Technology R&D 

Program Review, Pittsburgh, PA, July 14-15, 2004. 

26 Berry, M., Irvin, N., Monroe, L., Bustard, J., Lindsey, C., Brignac, P., Taylor, T., 

Schlager, R., Sjostrom, S., Starns, T., Chang, R., O’Palko, A., “Field Test Program for 

Long-Term Operation of a COHPAC® System for Removing Mercury from Coal-Fired 

Flue Gas”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, 

The Mega Symposium, Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 2004. 

56
 
 

 

27 Nelson, S., Landreth, R., Zhou, Q., Miller, J., “Accumulated Power-Plant MercuryRemoval Experience with Brominated PAC Injection”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined 

Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, Washington, D.C., 

August 30-September 2, 2004. 

28 Nelson, S., “Advanced Utility Sorbent Field Testing Program”, DOE/NETL Mercury 

Control Technology R&D Program Review, Pittsburgh, PA, July 14-15, 2004. 

29 McCoy, M., Rogers, W., Landreth, R., Brickett, L., “Full-Scale Mercury Sorbent 

Injection Testing at DTE Energy’s St. Clair Station”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined 

Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, Washington, D.C., 

August 30-September 2, 2004. 

30 Carpenter, T., McMurry, R., Potter, S., McGinnis, D., Corey, Q., Nelson Jr., S., Landreth, 

R., Miller, J., “Mercury Sorbent Results for a Hot-Side ESP at the Cliffside Plant,” EPA 

docket item OAR-2002-0056-5627, January 14, 2005. 

31 Zhou, Q., Zhang, Y., Nelson, S., “Evaluations of Concretes Containing Mercury 

Sorbents”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, 

The Mega Symposium, Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 2004. 

32 Butz, J., “Demonstration of Amended SilicatesTM for Mercury Control at Miami Fort 

Unit 6 – DOE Project 41988”, DOE/NETL Mercury Control Technology R&D Program 

Review, Pittsburgh, PA, July 14-15, 2004. 

33 Butz, J., Lovell, J., Broderick, T., Sidwell, R., Turchi, C., “Evaluation of Amended 

Silicate Sorbents for Mercury Control”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined Utility Air 

Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, Washington, D.C., May 19-22, 

2003. 

34 Butz, J., “Demonstration of Amended SilicatesTM for Mercury Control at Miami Fort 

Unit 6 – DOE Project 41988”, DOE/NETL Mercury Control Technology R&D Program 

Review, Pittsburgh, PA, July 14-15, 2004. 

35 Monroe, L., Berry, M., Irvin, N., Gale, T., Merritt, R., Heaphy, R., Chang, R., Taylor, B., 

Licata, A., Beittel, R., “An Evaluation of Activated Carbon and Sodium Tetrasulfide for 

the Removal of Vapor Phase Mercury from PRB Flue Gas at Pilot-Scale”, Joint EPRI 

DOE EPA Combined Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, 

Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 2004. 

36 Freeman, M., Pennline, H., Granite, E., Hargris, R., O’Dowd, W., “A Technique to 

Control Mercury From Flue Gas: The Thief Process”, DOE/NETL Mercury Control 

Technology R&D Program Review, Pittsburgh, PA, July 14-15, 2004. 

37 Ley, T., Ebner, T., Fisher, K., Slye, R., Patton, R., Chang, R., “Assessment of Low-Cost 

Novel Sorbents for Coal-Fired Power Plant Mercury Control”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA 

Combined Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, 

Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 2004. 

38 Thompson, J., Pavlish, J., Holmes, M., Bush, C., Brickett, L., “Enhancing Carbon 

Reactivity for Mercury Control: Field Test Results from Leland Olds”, Joint EPRI DOE 

EPA Combined Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, 

Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 2004. 

39 Dombrowski, K., Richardson, C., Machalek, T., Chapman, D., Chang, R., Monroe, L., 

Berry, M., Irvin, N., McBee, K., Sjostrom, S., “Sorbent Injection for Mercury Control 

Upstream of Small-SCA ESPs”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined Utility Air Pollution 

57
 
 

 

Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 

2004. 

40 Richardson, C., “Sorbent Injection for Small ESP Mercury Control in Bituminous Coal 

Flue Gas,” DOE/NETL Mercury Program Review Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, July 14-15, 

2004. 

41 Barton, R., McRanie, R., “The Potential Effect of Activated Carbon Injection on Power 

Plant Operation,” EPA docket item OAR-2002-0056-5485 Southern Att 1.pdf, December 

2004. 

42 Richardson, C., “Sorbent Injection for Small ESP Mercury Control in Low-Sulfur Eastern 

Bituminous Coal Flue Gas,” Quarterly Technical Progress Report October 1 – December 

31, 2004, prepared for DOE/NETL, January 2005. 

43 Machalek, T., Richardson, C., Dombrowski, K., Ley, T., Ebner, T., Fisher, K., Brickett, 

L., Chang, R., Strohfus, M., Smokey, S., Sjostrom, S., “Full-Scale Activated Carbon 

Injection for Mercury Control in Flue Gas Derived from North Dakota Lignite,” Joint 

EPRI DOE EPA Combined Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega 

Symposium, Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 2004. 

44 McCann, B., Norit Americas, Inc., personal correspondence with Hutson, N., U.S. EPA 

(NRMRL-RTP, NC), Februrary 16, 2005. 

45 AP-42, Fifth Edition, Volume 1 Chapter 1: External Combustion Sources, available at 

http://www.epa.gov/ttn/chief/ap42/ch01/final/c01s01.pdf. 

46 Engineering and Economic Factors Affecting the Installation of Control Technologies for 

Multipollutant Strategies, Air Pollution Prevention and Control Division, National Risk 

Management Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, U.S. 

Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC; EPA-600/R-02-073, 

October 2002. 

47 Thomas, B., Norit Americas, Inc., personal correspondence with Hutson, N., U.S. EPA 

(NRMRL-RTP, NC), September 6, 2001. 

48 Senior, C., Bustard, C.J., Baldrey, K., Starns, T., Durham, M., “Characterization of Fly 

Ash From Full Scale Demonstration of Sorbent Injection For Mercury Control On Coal 

Fired Power Plants”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined Utility Air Pollution Control 

Symposium, The Mega Symposium, Washington, D.C., May 19-22, 2003. 

49 Aljoe, W., Feeley, T., Murphy, J., and Brickett, L., “The Fate of Mercury in Coal 

Utilization By-Products - DOE/NETL’s Research Program”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA 

Combined Utility Air Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, 

Washington, D.C., August 30-September 2, 2004. 

50 Performance and Cost of Mercury and Multipollutant Emission Control Technology 

Applications on Electric Utility Boilers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of 

Research and Development, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, Research 

Triangle Park, NC; EPA/600/R-03/110, October 2003. 

51 Nolan, P., Farthing, G., Yurchison, D., Holmes, M., “Development of Mercury Emissions 

Control Technologies for the Power Industry”, Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined Utility 

Air Pollution Control Symposium, The Mega Symposium, Atlanta, GA, August 16-20, 

1999. 

52 Berry, M., Irvin, N., Monroe, L., Bustard, J., Lindsey, C., Brignac, P., Taylor, T., 

Schlager, R., Sjostrom, S., Starns, T., Chang, R., O’Palko, A., “Field Test Program for 

58
 
 

 

Long-Term Operation of a COHPAC® System for Removing Mercury from Coal-Fired 

Flue Gas”, Paper # 118, Joint EPRI DOE EPA Combined Utility Air Pollution Control 

Symposium, The Mega Symposium, Washington, D.C., May 19-22, 2003. 

53 Original figure from Testimony of Dr. Steven A. Benson, University of North Dakota, 

Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) to the U.S. Senate, Committee on 

Environment and Public Works, Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change, and 

Nuclear Safety, June 5, 2003. The figure modified by Sid Nelson of Sorbent 

Technologies Corp. to overlay data from demonstrations of halogenated carbon injection, 

November 27, 2004. 

54 Nelson, S., Sorbent Technologies Corp., personal communication with Hutson, N., U.S. 

EPA (NRMRL-RTP, NC), October 17, 2004. 

55 Starns, T., “Full-Scale Evaluation of Mercury Control by Injecting Activated Carbon 

Upstream of a Spray Dryer and Fabric Filter”, POWERGEN Conference, Orlando, FL, 

November 30, 2004. 

56 Durham, M., Bustard, J., Starns, T., Sjostrom, S., Lindsey, C., Martin, C., Schlager, R., 

Chang, R., Renninger, S., Monroe, L., Berry, M., Johnson, D. “Full-Scale Results of 

Mercury Control by Injecting Activated Carbon Upstream of ESPs and Fabric Filters”, 

POWERGEN Conference, Las Vegas, NV, December, 2003. 

59