Eleven metals and their species are being considered for regulation under the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments arousing significant interest in metal capture technologies. We have developed a process that greatly reduces toxic metal emissions from combustors. Our process provides lower mass transfer resistance and better mixing than existing methods. It also allows a choice of kinetic conditions making it possible to favor faster reactions. Our process converts toxic metals to benign materials and produces particles in a size distribution that allows them to be readily captured. This should result in cheaper and safer handling and lower usage of sorbents. We have built and tested a prototype system with temperatures and other conditions replicating those in typical waste incinerators and coal combustors. We observed better mixing and reaction than seen in standard systems with very high capture efficiencies for the various toxic metals. We are interested in licensing this technology to a company for commercialization.
Cheaper and safer handling and lower usage of sorbents.