Mercury Removal and Rare Earth Recovery from Coal and Biomass Ashes
This community investigates the chemical behavior of trace metals in coal and biomass combustion products, developing methods to capture gaseous pollutants like mercury and recover valuable elements from the resulting solid wastes.
The work centers on the chemistry of coal fly ash, coal gangue, and biomass ash. A dominant strand of research focuses on the adsorption and oxidation of gaseous elemental mercury (Hg0) from flue gas using engineered materials such as activated carbon, metal-organic frameworks, and modified biochar. A second major strand examines the extraction and separation of rare earth elements, lithium, and gallium from coal combustion residues and gasification slag. The community also studies the formation of ash deposits, slagging, and fouling in power plant boilers, as well as the environmental fate of heavy metals and sulfur compounds during combustion and gasification processes.
The largest share of the community's output is found in mercury research, accounting for 2.4% of all tracked mercury studies, with 3,391 papers in this group. Sulfur research follows with a 0.7% share and 2,052 papers, while carbon research represents 0.2% of its field with 1,646 papers.
The community comprises 13,116 papers, publishing most frequently in Fuel, Fuel Processing Technology, and the International Journal of Coal Geology.
Recent work continues to focus on the synergistic removal of mercury and carbon dioxide using modified metal-organic frameworks, as well as the stepwise recovery of lithium, gallium, and rare earth elements from roasted coal gangue and fly ash.