Sulfation behavior of white mud from paper manufacture as SO2 sorbent at fluidized bed combustion temperatures

The calcination characteristics, sulfation conversion, and sulfation kinetics of a white mud from paper manufacture at fluidized bed combustion temperatures were investigated in a thermogravimetric analyzer. Also, the comparison between the white mud and the limestone in sulfation behavior and microstructure was made. Although the white mud and the limestone both contain lots of CaCO₃, they are different in the alkali metal ions content and microstructure. It results in a marked difference in sulfation behavior between the white mud and the limestone. The CaO derived from white mud achieves the maximum sulfation conversion of 83% at about 940 °C which is 1.7 times higher than that derived from limestone at about 880 °C. The shrinking unreacted core model is appropriate to analyze the sulfation kinetics of the white mud. The chemical reaction activation energy E _a and the activation energy for product layer diffusion E _p for the sulfation of the white mud are 44.94 and 55.61 kJ mol⁻¹, respectively. E _p for the limestone is 2.8 times greater than that for the white mud. The calcined white mud possesses higher surface area than the calcined limestone. Moreover, the calcined white mud has more abundant pores in 4–24 nm range which is almost optimum pore size for sulfation. It indicates that the microstructure of the white mud is beneficial for SO₂ removal.