Flue Gas to Fertilizer

June 27, 2009

ScienceDirect - Radiation Physics and Chemistry : Industrial applications of electron beam flue gas treatment—From laboratory.

Andrzej G. Chmielewski;

Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Warsaw, Poland; Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

We submit this article on the "radar range" removal of Sulfur and Nitrogen from coal plant flue gas because it both illustrates how long the technology has been under development, and quantifies how efficient it has become.

The excerpt:

"Abstract

The electron beam technology for flue gas treatment (EBFGT) has been developed in Japan in the early 1980s. Later on, this process was investigated in pilot scale in the USA, Germany, Japan, Poland, Bulgaria and China. The new engineering and process solutions have been developed during the past two decades. Finally industrial plants have been constructed in Poland and China. The high efficiency of SOx and NOx removal was achieved (up to 95% for SOx and up to 70% for NOx) and by-product is a high quality fertilizer. Since the power of accelerators applied in industrial installation is over 1 MW and requested operational availability of the plant is equal to 8500 h in year, it is a new challenge for radiation processing applications."

Note, Mike, that industrial plants utilizing this high-efficiency technology, which produces high-quality fertilizer from the waste flue gasses of coal-use facilities, have been constructed in China. Just in time for their Coal-To-Liquid Fuel Revolution?

The use of coal doesn't create pollutants - just valuable raw materials for other commercial processes.