Discussion on "Characteristics of fly ashes from full-scale coal-fired power plants and their relationship to mercury adsorption" by Lu et al

Mercury capture by coal-combustion fly ash is a function of the amount of Hg in the feed coal, the amount of carbon in the fly ash, the type of carbon in the fly ash (including variables introduced by the rank of the feed coal), and the flue gas temperature at the point of ash collection. In their discussion of fly ash and Hg adsorption, Lu et al. [Energy Fuels 2007, 21, 2112-2120] had some fundamental flaws in their techniques, which, in turn, impact the validity of analyzed parameters. First, they used mechanical sieving to segregate fly ash size fractions. Mechanical sieving does not produce representative size fractions, particularly for the finest sizes. If the study samples were not obtained correctly, the subsequent analyses of fly ash carbon and Hg cannot accurately represent the size fractions. In the analysis of carbon forms, it is not possible to accurately determine the forms with scanning electron microscopy. The complexity of the whole particles is overlooked when just examining the outer particle surface. Examination of elements such as Hg, present in very trace quantities in most fly ashes, requires careful attention to the analytical techniques.