Evaluation of mercury speciation by EPA (Draft) Method 29

Conference · Wed Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:121395

Laudal, D L; Heidt, M K ^[1]; Nott, B ^[2]

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1. Energy & Environmental Research Center, Grand Forks, ND (United States)
2. Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA (United States)

The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments require that the U.S. Environmental protection Agency (EPA) assess the health risks associated with mercury emissions. Also, the law requires a separate assessment of health risks posed by the emission of 189 tract chemicals (including mercury) for electric utility steam-generating units. In order to conduct a meaningful assessment of health and environmental effects, we must have, among other things, a reliable and accurate method to measure mercury emissions. In addition, the rate of mercury deposition and the type of control strategies used may depend upon the type of mercury emitted (i.e., whether it is in the oxidized or elemental form). It has been speculated that EPA (Draft) Method 29 can speciate mercury by selective absorption; however, this claim has yet to be proven. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have contracted with the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at University of North Dakota to evaluate EPA (Draft) Method 29 at the pilot-scale level. The objective of the work is to determine whether EPA (Draft) Method 29 can reliably quantify and speciate mercury in the flue gas from coal-fired boilers.

• Research Organization: USDOE Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center, PA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 121395
• Report Number(s): CONF-9507159--; ON: DE95017240
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
FLUE GAS
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
MERCURY
POLLUTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT
SAMPLING
US EPA