A Carbon-Polymer Matrix-Based Flue Gas Desulfurization Technology

This Phase I research project involves an innovative technology for sulfur dioxide (SO2) removal from coal-burning flue gases: flue gas desulfurization (FGD) technology. The current FGD technologies are expensive and energy extensive, and they generate secondary pollution. For example, the limestone-based wet scrubber FGD system costs up to 15 percent of the total construction cost of a coal-fired power plant. It also generates huge amount of solid and liquid wastes, and consumes up to 4 percent of the electricity generated from the power plant. The technology is based on an innovative catalytic sorbent system that directly converts SO2 into concentrated sulfuric acid. Furthermore, the system does not require a regeneration step, which typically is complex and energy intensive. Sorption Technologies, Inc., will establish the feasibility of the technology by designing and modifying the innovative catalytic sorbent material, testing the material¿s SO2 removal performance, and evaluating the system¿s long-term catalytic efficiency of SO2 conversion. If successful, the technology will provide a simple, economic, and environmentally benign FGD process. The process will generate no environmental harmful wastes, except valuable sulfuric acid. The installation and operation costs will be substantially lower than current technologies. The process also will have the potential to remove multi-pollutants, such as mercury and fine particles, simultaneously.