Investigation of sulfur-impregnated activated carbon for removal of mercury vapor from a thermal desorption off-gas

Sulfur-impregnated activated carbon is being studied for use as a final mercury emission control device for a thermal desorption unit. Bench-scale tests are being conducted to demonstrate the performance of the sulfur-impregnated activated carbon for mercury vapor recovery and to determine design parameters needed to implement this control technology in a pilot-scale thermal desorption process. These experiments are designed to analyze break-through time, adsorption capacity, and rate of adsorption. The performance of the sulfur-impregnated activated carbon will be compared with the base-activated carbon. A bench-scale experiment has been constructed to simulate the conditions of a mercury off-gas stream from a thermal desorption unit to collect the required data. Because a high concentration of water vapor is expected in the thermal desorption offgas, the experiments will be conducted both with and without water vapor present in the experimental off-gas to verify the impact of water vapor on performance of the carbon and to determine if preventive measures should be taken in the pilot-scale system