Removal of elemental mercury from simulated flue gas by cerium oxide modified attapulgite

A novel catalyst CeO2/ATP was developed to remove Hg0 from coal fired gas. This is new way to use the facile, cheap and larger BET specific surface area catalyst attapulgite (ATP) as support to remove Hg0 from coal fired gas. The Hg0 removal and oxidation efficiency of CeO2/ATP (1: 1) is up to 97.75% and 92.23% at 200 °C, respectively. We also found that ATP plays an important role in improving the catalyst activity of CeO2/ATP, which can make CeO2/ATP have more stable catalyst activity at broader temperature range and obtain lower optimum activity temperature. Other influencing factors, such as temperature and flue gas environment (SO2, Cl2, NO), are also investigated in order to get a clear understanding of the experiment. The formation mechanisms are also proposed.