Open Access

ARTICLE

Field Studies on the Removal Characteristics of Particulate Matter and SO_x in Ultra-Low Emission Coal-Fired Power Plant

Xu Zhao, Houzhang Tan, Fuxin Yang^*, Shuanghui Deng

Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering, Ministry of Education, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China

* Corresponding Author: Fuxin Yang. Email:

(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Advancement of Understanding of PM_2.5 and Hg Emissions and Their Control Technologies for Cleaner Combustion)

Energy Engineering 2022, 119(1), 49-62. https://doi.org/10.32604/EE.2022.015622

Received 31 December 2020; Accepted 25 March 2021; Issue published 22 November 2021

Abstract

In order to reduce the environmental smog caused by coal combustion, air pollution control devices have been widely used in coal-fired power plants, especially of wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) and wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP). In this work, particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm (PM₁₀) and sulfur oxides (SO_x) have been studied in a coal-fired power plant. The plant is equipped with selective catalytic reduction, electrostatic precipitator, WFGD, WESP. The results show that the PM₁₀ removal efficiencies in WFGD and WESP are 54.34% and 50.39%, respectively, and the overall removal efficiency is 77.35%. WFGD and WESP have effects on the particle size distribution. After WFGD, the peak of particles shifts from 1.62 to 0.95 μm, and the mass concentration of fine particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 0.61 μm increases. After WESP, the peak of particle size shifts from 0.95 to 1.61 μm. The differences are due to the agglomeration and growth of small particles. The SO₃ mass concentration increases after SCR, but WFGD has a great influence on SO_x with the efficiency of 96.56%. WESP can remove SO_x, but the efficiency is 20.91%. The final emission factors of SO₂, SO₃, PM₁, PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ are 0.1597, 0.0450, 0.0154, 0.0267 and 0.0215 (kg · t⁻¹), respectively. Compared with the research results without ultra-low emission retrofit, the emission factors are reduced by 1~2 orders of magnitude, and the emission control level of air pollutants is greatly improved.

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