DOE has identified technologies (based on past DOE and other R&D organizations' mercury measurement and control achievements) that are expected to be important in developing possible strategies on mercury control for the coal-fired electric utility industry. To address critical questions related to cost and efficiency of these mercury control technologies, DOE has funded the first of a kind large-scale initiative aimed at testing and evaluating large-scale mercury control technologies for coal-based power systems. These tests will collect cost and performance data with parametric and long term field experiments at power plants with existing air pollution control devices (APCDs) utilized to control other pollutants as well as mercury in hopes of providing the cheapest control options for the utility industry in mid-term application (5 to 10 years).

The ADA program involves testing four utility plant configurations that have either electrostatic precipitators or fabric filters for particulate control. Spray cooling will be used to reduce flue gas temperatures in order to increase the effectiveness of the native fly ash and/or sorbents. Sorbents will be injected in a dry form to remove the remaining mercury compounds. Reagents will be injected to control the levels of sulfur trioxide (if needed) that forms as flue gas temperatures are reduced. Finally, flue gas conditioning agents will be used if additional particle resistivity control or cohesion control is required.

PG&E Generating is providing two test sites that fire low-sulfur bituminous coals and are equipped with ESPs and carbon/ash separation systems. Wisconsin Electric Power Company is providing a third field test site that burns Powder River Basin coal and has an ESP for particulate control. A fourth site, supplied by Southern Company, is buring various low-sulfur bituminous coals and is equipped with an EPRI COHPAC fabric filter. This suite of facilities and associated air pollution control configurations are representative of the vast majority of coal-fired power plants that are operating in the United States today.

ADA-ES and their team consists of many of the world’s technical leaders in the areas of mercury measurement, transformations during coal combustion, capture by existing emission-control equipment as well as the design of integrated emission-control systems for enhancing mercury capture. Organizations represented on the team include URS Radian, Physical Sciences, Apogee Scientific, EPRI, Energy & Environmental Strategies, EnviroCare, Microbeam Technologies, EERC, Environmental Elements Corp., Consol, and Norit Americas.