Comparison of mercury speciation results obtained with the US EPA Method 29 and the Ontario Hydro Technologies sampling methods at a sub-bituminous coal-fired power plant
- Ontario Hydro Technologies, Toronto, Ontario (Canada)
- Bovar Environmental, Calgary, Alberta, CA (United States)
In 1993, Ontario Hydro Technologies (OHT) developed a number of modifications to the US EPA reference method for measuring total mercury emissions from stationary sources, Method 101A, that also allowed the chemical form (speciation) of the mercury to be determined. Since that time, the method has been used by OHT and several other research and stack testing organizations for numerous mercury speciation measurements, often as a comparison with other methods such as the US EPA Method 29. However, much of that work has been carried out at pilot plant combustion facilities and only very few comparative measurements have been performed at full scale power plants. Most recently, OHT participated in a collaborative study to determine both the mercury speciation and total mercury emissions from a sub-bituminous coal-fired power plant in Alberta, Canada. The stack emissions at that plant were sampled simultaneously with the OHT method and Method 29 over a three day test period, with one full test being completed each day. The results available at this time show that there was very poor agreement between the two methods for both the total mercury emissions and the measured speciation. This was surprising since earlier studies had shown that while differences in the speciation results were common, the total mercury results were generally found to be in reasonable agreement. The reasons for these findings are still being investigated.
- OSTI ID:
- 351125
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-970677-; TRN: IM9925%%287
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 90. annual meeting and exhibition of the Air and Waste Management Association, Toronto (Canada), 8-13 Jun 1997; Other Information: PBD: 1997; Related Information: Is Part Of 1997 proceedings of the Air and Waste Management Association`s 90. annual meeting and exhibition; PB: [7000] p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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