Emissions of airborne toxics from coal-fired boilers: Mercury
Concerns over emissions of hazardous air Pollutants (air toxics) have emerged as a major environmental issue, and the authority of the US Environmental Protection Agency to regulate such pollutants was greatly expanded through the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Mercury has been singled out for particular attention because of concerns over possible effects of emissions on human health. This report evaluates available published information on the mercury content of coals mined in the United States, on mercury emitted in coal combustion, and on the efficacy of various environmental control technologies for controlling airborne emissions. Anthracite and bituminous coals have the highest mean-mercury concentrations, with subbituminous coals having the lowest. However, all coal types show very significant variations in mercury concentrations. Mercury emissions from coal combustion are not well-characterized, particularly with regard to determination of specific mercury compounds. Variations in emission rates of more than an order of magnitude have been reported for some boiler types. Data on the capture of mercury by environmental control technologies are available primarily for systems with electrostatic precipitators, where removals of approximately 20% to over 50% have been reported. Reported removals for wet flue-gas-desulfurization systems range between 35 and 95%, while spray-dryer/fabric-filter systems have given removals of 75 to 99% on municipal incinerators. In all cases, better data are needed before any definitive judgments can be made. This report briefly reviews several areas of research that may lead to improvements in mercury control for existing flue-gas-clean-up technologies and summarizes the status of techniques for measuring mercury emissions from combustion sources.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (United States). Energy Systems Div.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 10183516
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ESD/TM-35; ON: DE93002760
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Sep 1991
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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