A Fresh Approach to the Control and Monitoring of Emissions of Sulphur and Mercury

At present too much emphasis for emission control from vehicles and furnaces is placed on monitoring and cleaning the exhaust gases. This means dealing with large volumes of hot gases at low pressures. This may be unavoidable in the case of coal but the adoption of gaseous and liquid fuels allows a different approach. Gases and low boiling hydrocarbon liquids contain relatively simple sulphur compounds and may also contain mercury. This allows a fresh approach for emission control. Gases are likely to be delivered at a high pressure which reduces the actual volume to be handled. These fuels can be treated with fixed bed absorbents at ambient temperature to remove H2S and mercury and the absorption profile can be easily measured. This approach has the added advantage that the spent absorbent can be collected and sent for recycling. Examples are given of the use of this technology for monitoring and emission control.