EUEC CONFERENCE ABSTRACTS

Energy, Utility & Environment Conference (EUEC) 2017

ORAL - Online Measurements of Hg, As and Se in FGD Wastewater Streams

Authors: Dr Warren T Corns (PSA)

The EPA new ruling (40 CFR, part 423) is an attempt to reduce the amount of toxic metals and other pollutants discharged to surface water from power plants.The main pollutants of concern include metals (e.g Hg, As and Se), nitrogen and total dissolved solids (TDS). Toxic metal discharges have a huge impact on the environment as they bio-accumulate in wildlife and cause a wide array of human health issues. The new ruling would establish new and additional requirements for wastewaters associated with FGD wastewater, fly and bottom ash transportation water, flue gas mercury control water, combustion residual leachates from landfill and surface impoundments, metal cleaning wastes and gasification wastewater. Depending on the final options the best available technology (BAT) that is economically achievable will need to be applied to reduce pollutant discharges. This is particularly challenging for dissolved forms of As, Se and Hg as they are not removed by surface impoundments. In this paper we will provide an update on our online based on AFS and various sampling solutions. We have recently developed a new online Hg analyser which offers lower detection limits. These will be are outlined with recent experiences and data.

Energy, Utility & Environment Conference (EUEC) 2016

ORAL - Recent Advances in Wastewater Measurements of Hg, As and Se using AFS

Authors: Dr Warren T Corns, Dr Bin Chen (PSA)

The EPA proposed new rule (40 CFR, part 423) is an attempt to reduce the amount of toxic metals and other pollutants discharged to surface water from power plants. The main pollutants of concern include metals (e.g Hg, As and Se), nitrogen and total dissolved solids (TDS). Toxic metal discharges have a huge impact on the environment as they bio-accumulate in wildlife and cause a wide array of human health issues. The new ruling would establish new and additional requirements for wastewaters associated with FGD wastewater, fly and bottom ash transportation water, flue gas mercury control water, combustion residual leachates from landfill and surface impoundments, metal cleaning wastes and gasification wastewater. Depending on the final options the best available technology (BAT) that is economically achievable will need to be applied to reduce pollutant discharges. This is particularly challenging for dissolved forms of As, Se and Hg as they are not removed by surface impoundments. In this paper we will provide an update on our online and laboratory analysers based on AFS and various sampling solutions. We have recently developed a new online Hg analyser which offers lower detection limits. These will be are outlined with recent experiences and data.

Energy, Utility & Environment Conference 2015

ORAL - Online Monitoring of Hg, Se and As in FGD Wastewater Treatment Plants

Authors: Dr Warren T Corns and Dr Bin Chen

Session Water - Wastewater Management

The EPA proposed new rule (40 CFR, part 423) is an attempt to reduce the amount of toxic metals and other pollutants discharged to surface water from power plants. Previous regulations do not consider the additional burden of water discharge pollutants from air pollution control systems such as flue gas de-sulphurization (FGD), selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and flue gas mercury control (FGMC).

The main pollutants of concern include metals (e.g mercury, arsenic and selenium), nitrogen and total dissolved solids (TDS). Toxic metal discharges have a huge impact on the environment as they bio-accumulate in wildlife and cause a wide array of human health issues. The new ruling would establish new and additional requirements for wastewaters associated with FGD wastewater, fly and bottom ash transportation water, flue gas mercury control water, combustion residual leachates from landfill and surface impoundments, metal cleaning wastes and gasification wastewater. Depending on the final options the best available technology (BAT) that is economically achievable will need to be applied to reduce pollutant discharges. This is particularly challenging for dissolved forms of As, Se and Hg as they are not removed by surface impoundments.

PSA have a number of online and laboratory measurement based on AFS and sampling solutions to confirm the efficiency of the wastewater treatment processes and for compliance monitoring. These are outlined with recent experiences and data from the field.

Energy, Utility & Environment Conference 2014

ORAL - Online Determination of Arsenic, Selenium and Mercury in Power Plant Discharge Water

Authors: Dr Warren T Corns

In June 2013, the EPA proposed a new rule (40 CFR,part 423) in an attempt to reduce the amount of toxic metals and other pollutants discharged to surface water from power plants. Previous regulations do not consider the additional burden of water discharge pollutants from air pollution control systems such as flue gas de-sulphurization, selective catalytic reduction and mercury control. The main pollutants of concern include metals (e.g mercury, arsenic and selenium), nitrogen and total dissolved solids (TDS). In this paper we present an online measurement system for Hg, As and Se for power plant waste water discharges. The instrument is based on vapor/hydride hydride generation with atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS). The current method of analysis for these elements is ICP-MS with a collision cell to overcome isobaric interferences. This laboratory based approach has numerous limitations and does not offer the method detection limits. Large sample dilutions are required to overcome the issues due to total dissolved solids found in this sample type. The online AFS system however provides detection limits in the part per trillion range with linearity over 7 orders of magnitude. Waste water samples are treated online using using a UV photolysis system which provides a a determination for total metal content. The system offers an online measurement solution to ensure that abatement systems are effectively achieving permitted levels.