Field test of SO3 removal in ultra-low emission coal-fired power plants.

Under the extensive implementation of ultra-low emission (ULE) facilities in coal-fired power plants of China, sulfur trioxide (SO3) has received increasing attention due to its impact on human health and operation safety of power plants. However, systematic research and evaluation for controlling SO3 emission in various ULE facilities are still lacking. Here, a systematic study was conducted based on 378 in situ performance evaluation tests carried out in 148 coal-fired power plants. The results illustrate that the SO2/SO3 conversion rate of the selective catalytic reduction devices can be controlled within 1% before and after ULE retrofit. Also, the synergistic removal efficiency of SO3 in the low-low-temperature electrostatic precipitator and the wet electrostatic precipitator can be higher than 70%. The removal efficiency of SO3 in the wet limestone-gypsum flue gas desulfurization scrubber is 33-64% before ULE and 31-81% after, and the average efficiency of the double scrubbers is 8.7% higher than that of the single scrubber. Due to the different SO3 removing abilities of various technologies, the overall efficiency of SO3 removal is in the range between 27 and 95% adopting different ULE technical routes. Average concentration of SO3 emission can be decreased by 51.8% after ULE application.