Fate of Mercury in Synthetic Gypsum Used for Wallboard Production

iii DISCLAIMER This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof. iv ABSTRACT This report presents and discusses results from the project " Fate of Mercury in Synthetic Gypsum Used for Wallboard Production, " performed at five different full-scale commercial wallboard plants. Synthetic gypsum produced by wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems on coal-fired power plants is commonly used in the manufacture of wallboard. This practice has long benefited the environment by recycling the FGD gypsum byproduct, which is becoming available in increasing quantities, decreasing the need to landfill this material, and increasing the sustainable design of the wallboard product. However, new concerns have arisen as recent mercury control strategies involve the capture of mercury in FGD systems. The objective of this study has been to determine whether any mercury is released into the atmosphere at wallboard manufacturing plants when the synthetic gypsum material is used as a feedstock for wallboard production. The project scope included seven discrete tasks, each including a test conducted at various USG wallboard plants using synthetic gypsum from different wet FGD systems. The project was originally composed of five tasks, which were to include 1) a base-case test, then variations representing differing power plant: 2) emissions control configurations, 3) treatment of fine gypsum particles, 4) coal types, and 5) FGD reagent types. However, Task 5,could not be conducted as planned and instead was conducted at conditions similar to Task 3. Subsequently an opportunity arose to test gypsum produced from the Task 5 FGD system, but with an additive expected to impact the stability of mercury, so Task 6 was added to the project. Finally, Task 7 was added to evaluate synthetic gypsum produced …