Bowling Green, Ky. - WKU’s Institute for Combustion Science and Environmental Technology has been awarded a $957,491 grant from Illinois Clean Coal Institute, City Water, Light and Power in Springfield, and Southern Illinois Power Cooperative for “Long Term Evaluation of Mercury Monitoring Systems at Illinois Fired Boilers.”

Long-term evaluation of Mercury Monitoring Systems will be studied at four Illinois Coal Fired Boilers for two-month testing periods at each unit. This project will address significant technical issues for the use of Mercury Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems (CEMS) such as (1) the precision, accuracy and time lag associated with the Ontario Hydro wet chemical reference method; (2) the development of an instrumental mercury reference method; (3) a comparison between direct extraction and dilution methods for the sampling system; (4) the availability and feasibility of calibration techniques for both elemental and oxidized mercury conditioning; (5) confirmation of EPA part 75 compliance; (6) the reliability and operational ability of mercury CEMS; (7) the performance of sorbent trap hardware (appendix K) and analytical techniques using Illinois coal conditions.

This project will also assist City Water Light and Power’s Unit 32 (T-fired boiler) and Unit 33 (cyclone-high sulfur and high chlorine) boilers and Southern Illinois Power Cooperative’s Unit 123 (CFBC) and Unit 4 (cyclone-high sulfur and low chlorine) in planning how to reduce mercury emissions by 90 percent by the middle of 2009 as proposed by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The findings from this project will enhance knowledge of the stability and accuracy of Mercury Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems using Illinois coals, to overcome several technical issues related to mercury CEMS. 

These findings will also address several questions regarding the abatement of mercury emissions from the burning of Illinois coal. The difficulty of handling and maintaining the mercury CEMS will also be determined and documented. The results may help to open a new market for Illinois coals by better understanding mercury control through the co-benefit from the air pollution control devices with high chlorine Illinois coal and the availability of CEMS’ operating experiences.

This project will be collaboration between City Water, Light and Power in Springfield, Southern Illinois Power Cooperative, and WKU.

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For information, contact Wei-Ping Pan at (270) 745-2272.

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