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Title: Laboratory-scale evaluation of various sampling and analytical methods for determining mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants

Conference ·
OSTI ID:121396
; ;  [1]
  1. Advanced Technology Systems, Inc., Monroeville, PA (United States); and others

Comparative bench-scale mercury sampling method tests were performed at the Advanced Technology Systems, Inc. (ATS) laboratories for EPA Method 101A, EPA Method 29 and the Ontario Hydro Method. Both blank and impinger spiking experiments were performed. The experimental results show that the ambient level of mercury in the ATS laboratory is at or below the detection limit (10 ng Hg) as measured by a cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometer (CVAAS) which was used to analyze the mercury samples. From the mercury spike studies, the following observations and findings were made. (a) The recovery of mercury spikes using EPA Method 101A was 104%. (b) The Ontario Hydro Method retains about 90% of mercury spikes in the first absorbing solution but has a total spike retention of 106%. As a result, the test data shows possible migration of spiked mercury from the first impinger solution (KCI) to the permanganate impingers. (c) For the EPA Method 29 solutions, when only the peroxide impingers were spiked, mercury recoveries were 65.6% for the peroxide impingers, 0.1% for the knockout impinger and 32.8% for the permanganate impingers with an average total mercury recovery of 98.4%. At press time, data was still being obtained for both the peroxide and permanganate impinger solution spikes. This and other data will be available at the presentation.

Research Organization:
USDOE Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center (PETC), PA (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC22-93PC92583
OSTI ID:
121396
Report Number(s):
CONF-9507159-; ON: DE95017240; TRN: 95:024011
Resource Relation:
Conference: 11. annual coal preparation, utilization, and environmental control contractors conference, Pittsburgh, PA (United States), 12-14 Jul 1995; Other Information: PBD: [1995]; Related Information: Is Part Of Eleventh annual coal preparation, utilization, and environmental control contractors conference: Proceedings; PB: 440 p.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English