Carbon-catalyzed oxidation of SO2 by NO2 and air

A series of experiments was performed using carbon particles (commercial furnace black) as a surrogate for soot particles. Carbon particles were suspended in water, and gas mixtures were bubbled into the suspensions to observe the effect of carbon particles on the oxidation of SO2 by air and NO2. Identical gas mixtures were bubbled into a blank containing only pure water. After exposure each solution was analyzed for pH and sulfate. It was found that NO2 greatly enhances the oxidation of SO2 to sulfate in the presence of carbon particles. The amount of sulfate found in the blanks was significantly less. Under the conditions of these experiments no saturation of the reaction was observed and SO2 was converted to sulfate even in a highly acid medium (pH or = 1.5)

Photocatalytic degradation of SO2 using TiO2-containing silicate as a building coating material

10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2013.02.012Construction and Building Materials43197-20

High mercury emission (both forms: Hg0 and Hg2+) from the wet scrubber in a full-scale lignite-fired power plant

The paper describes and discusses the results of research on mercury behaviour, especially its high emission, in both forms: elemental (Hg-0) and oxidised (Hg2+) from the wet flue gas desulphurisation scrubber (WFGD) in a lignite-fired power plant located in central Europe. The presented results involve the collection of lignite power plant samples (liquid, solid, gas) and different laboratory chemical analyses to try to understand the mechanism of mercury re-emission from the wet flue gas desulfurization system. It was noted that 67-80% of the total inlet mercury concentration left the WFGD scrubber. Moreover, the oxidised form of mercury was the main emitted form (about 60-70% of the total mercury concentration). The results show that mercury was found in very high concentration (10 mu g/g) (range: ppm) in the WFGD solid by-products, whereas the liquid phase contained only 1 mu g//l (range: ppb). Considering literature reports and presented data from the investigated power station, we believe that iron (Fe), which occurs in very high concentrations in solid WFGD samples (1.81% wt. Fe) and lignite (up to 20 g/kg Fe) is mainly responsible for disrupting the mercury absorption in the scrubber, the partitioning of the mercury between phases and leads to its reemission. Moreover, we believe also that a relatively high iodine ion concentration (130 mg/l) in the limestone slurry leads to mercury emission in its oxidised form, mainly as Hgl(2), which is highly volatile. Other minor components from limestone dissolution such as Mn, Al and Mg may additionally enhance that "complex" mercury behaviour.Web of Science270art. no. 11749

A study to identify and compare airborne systems for in-situ measurements of launch vehicle effluents

An in-situ system for monitoring the concentration of HCl, CO, CO2, and Al2O3 in the cloud of reaction products that form as a result of a launch of solid propellant launch vehicle is studied. A wide array of instrumentation and platforms are reviewed to yield the recommended system. An airborne system suited to monitoring pollution concentrations over urban areas for the purpose of calibrating remote sensors is then selected using a similar methodology to yield the optimal configuration

Impact of Gobi desert dust on aerosol chemistry of Xi'an, inland China during spring 2009: differences in composition and size distribution between the urban ground surface and the mountain atmosphere

Composition and size distribution of atmospheric aerosols from Xi'an city (~400 m, altitude) in inland China during the spring of 2009 including a massive dust event on 24 April were measured and compared with a parallel measurement at the summit (2060 m, altitude) of Mt. Hua, an alpine site nearby Xi'an. EC (elemental carbon), OC (organic carbon) and major ions in the city were 2–22 times higher than those on the mountaintop during the whole sampling period. Compared to that in the non-dust period a sharp increase in OC was observed at both sites during the dust period, which was mainly caused by an input of biogenic organics from the Gobi desert. However, adsorption/heterogeneous reaction of gaseous organics with dust was another important source of OC in the urban, contributing 22% of OC in the dust event. In contrast to the mountain atmosphere where fine particles were less acidic when dust was present, the urban fine particles became more acidic in the dust event than in the non-dust event, mainly due to enhanced heterogeneous formation of nitrate and diluted NH<sub>3</sub>. Cl<sup>−</sup> and NO<sub>3</sub><sup>−</sup> in the urban air during the dust event significantly shifted toward coarse particles. Such redistributions were further pronounced on the mountaintop when dust was present, resulting in both ions almost entirely staying in coarse particles. On the contrary, no significant spatial difference in size distribution of SO<sub>4</sub><sup>2−</sup> was found between the urban ground surface and the mountain atmosphere, which dominated in the fine mode (<2.1 μm) during the nonevent and comparably distributed in the fine (<2.1 μm) and coarse (>2.1 μm) modes during the dust event

Fluidized bed desulfurization

High sulfur content carbonaceous material, such as coal is desulfurized by continuous fluidized suspension in a reactor with chlorine gas, inert dechlorinating gas and hydrogen gas. A source of chlorine gas, a source of inert gas and a source of hydrogen gas are connected to the bottom inlet through a manifold and a heater. A flow controler operates servos in a manner to continuously and sequentially suspend coal in the three gases. The sulfur content is reduced at least 50% by the treatment