New adsorbents for direct warm-gas capture of mercury

Bioregeneration of spent mercury bearing sulfur-impregnated activated carbon adsorbent

Among various adsorbents studied, sulfur-impregnated activated carbon is one of the most promising adsorbents for mercury removal from flue gas. However, a large amount of spent activated carbons containing high content of mercury are generated after adsorption. To make the adsorption a more viable option, the regeneration and reuse of the spent activated carbon should be considered. The purpose of this study is to develop a novel technique for bioregeneration of sulfur-impregnated activated carbons after adsorption of mercury from flue gases by sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. The optimal operating parameters for this bioregeneration process were studied using central composite design (CCD) and response surface methodology (RSM). Results showed that the sulfur oxidation rate was increased with increasing activated carbon dosage. Furthermore, the increase of inoculum size only caused a slight increase of sulfur oxidation rate in the bioregeneration. The maximum mercury removal efficiency of more than 50% was obtained at 10% (w/v) activated carbon dosage and 20% (v/v) inoculum size. After the bioregeneration process, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and micropore volume of spent activated carbon increased due to the bio-oxidation of mercury bearing sulfur on the surface of activated carbons.

Development of low-concentration mercury adsorbents from biohydrogen-generation agricultural residues using sulfur impregnation

Mercury adsorbents were derived from waste biohydrogen-generation barley husk and rice husk via carbonization, steam activation, and sulfur impregnation at 300-650°C. The samples derived from agricultural residues showed a greater Hg(0) adsorption than that of a coal-based activated carbon, confirming the feasibility of resource recovery of these agricultural residuals for low-concentration gaseous Hg adsorption. Sulfur impregnation reduced both the surface area and pore volume of the samples, with lower temperature causing a greater decrease. Elevating the impregnation temperature increased the organic sulfur contents, suggesting that in addition to elemental sulfur, organic sulfur may also act as active sites to improve Hg(0) adsorption. Oxygen and sulfur functional groups accompanying the microporous structures may account for the enhancing Hg(0) adsorption of the raw and sulfur-treated samples, respectively. The pseudo-second-order model can best describe the chemisorption characteristics, implying that Hg(0) adsorption on the samples was in a bimolecular reaction form.