Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Comparative evaluation of ATS Method 1, the Ontario-Hydro Method and EPA Method 29 for capture and analysis of mercury species

Conference ·
OSTI ID:351117
; ; ; ;  [1]
  1. Advanced Technology Systems, Inc., Monroeville, PA (United States)
The combustion of coal as a fuel source results in the production of a myriad of potentially hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) that are present on the Clean Air Act Amendments (1990) list. In an effort to identify and quantify such HAPs, the US Department of Energy (DOE) contracted several companies to conduct studies of air toxics emissions from various coal-fired utility boilers. The data obtained from these studies gave disparate levels of mercury species in the flue gas, depending on the sampling methodology applied. Given the extent of the differences in the relative toxicity of the mercury species (elemental vs. oxidized or combined mercury), DOE was interested in an accurate accounting of the various mercury compounds emitted into the environment. ATS, as a contractor for DOE, is currently conducting comparative bench-scale and pilot-scale evaluations of several mercury sampling methods, including one of their own, to determine their capability to selectively isolate and retain various mercury species. Results will be presented on the various bench-scale and pilot-scale mercury spiking studies conducted with the captioned sampling techniques along with recommendations for improving the methodologies where anomalies have been observed previously.
OSTI ID:
351117
Report Number(s):
CONF-970677--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English