Fractionation and characterization of thermal extracts from lignite under ultrasonic-assisted extraction

Hypercoal(HPC)is promising feedstock for producing coal-based chemicals due to its extremely low ash content and high reactivity.However,the conventional methods for HPC preparation through thermal extraction under mechanical stirring are difficult to scale-up due to the low HPC yield and large consumption of solvent.This work conducted ultrasonic-assisted extraction(UAE)instead of mechanical stirring to enhance the efficiency of HPC production,and the effect of technological conditions on the HPC yield were examined.It was found that the UAE could remarkably enhance the HPC yield from 52.3%to 82.4%.Moreover,the ratio of soluble(HPC-S)to deposit(HPC-D)increased from 1.65 to 2.85,verifying the high efficiency and the capacity of altering the product distribution of UAE.

Fate of mercury in flue gas desulfurization gypsum determined by Temperature Programmed Decomposition and Sequential Chemical Extraction

A considerable amount of Hg is retained in flue gas desulfurization（FGD） gypsum from Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization（WFGD） systems. For this reason, it is important to determine the species of Hg in FGD gypsum not only to understand the mechanism of Hg removal by WFGD systems but also to determine the final fate of Hg when FGD gypsum is disposed. In this study, Temperature Programmed Decomposition（TPD） and Sequential Chemical Extraction（SCE） were applied to FGD gypsum to identify the Hg species in it. The FGD gypsum samples were collected from seven coal-fired power plants in China, with Hg concentrations ranging from 0.19 to 3.27 μg/g. A series of pure Hg compounds were used as reference materials in TPD experiments and the results revealed that the decomposition temperatures of different Hg compounds increase in the order of Hg_2Cl_2〈 HgCl_2〈 black HgS 〈 Hg_2SO_4〈 red HgS 〈 HgO 〈 HgSO_4. The Hg compounds existing in FGD gypsums identified by TPD included HgCl_2, Hg_2Cl_2, Hg_2SO_4, black HgS and red HgS, of which mercury sulfides were the primary compounds. The results of SCE indicated that Hg was mainly distributed in the strongly complexed phase. The low Hg content in FGD gypsum increases the ambiguity of assigning extraction fractions to certain Hg species by SCE. The fact that the primary compounds in FGD gypsum are HgS phases leads the leaching of Hg in the natural environment to be quite low, but a considerable amount of Hg may be released during the industrial heating process.

Physicochemical regeneration of high silica zeolite Y used to clean-up water polluted with sulfonamide antibiotics

High silica zeolite Y has been positively evaluated to clean-up water polluted with sulfonamides, an antibiotic family which is known to be involved in the antibiotic resistance evolution. To define possible strategies for the exhausted zeolite regeneration,the efficacy of some chemico-physical treatments on the zeolite loaded with four different sulfonamides was evaluated. The evolution of photolysis, Fenton-like reaction, thermal treatments, and solvent extractions and the occurrence in the zeolite pores of organic residues eventually entrapped was elucidated by a combined thermogravimetric（TGA–DTA）, diffractometric（XRPD）, and spectroscopic（FT-IR） approach. The chemical processes were not able to remove the organic guest from zeolite pores and a limited transformation on embedded molecules was observed. On the contrary, both thermal treatment and solvent extraction succeeded in the regeneration of the zeolite loaded from deionized and natural fresh water. The recyclability of regenerated zeolite was evaluated over several adsorption/regeneration cycles, due to the treatment efficacy and its stability as well as the ability to regain the structural features of the unloaded material.