Mercury control

USEPA] US Environmental Protection Agency. 2004b. URL http //www.epa.gov/mercury/ control emissions/global.htm, updated May 2005. 

C.D. Livengood, H.S. Huang, M.H. Mendelsohn and J.M. Wu, Development of Mercury Control Enhancements for Flue-Gas Cleanup Systems, Proc. EPRI/DOE International Conference of Managing Hazardous and Particulate Air Pollutants, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, (1995). 

Environmental Protection Agency, Mercury Study Report to Congress Volume VII—An Evaluation of Mercury Control Technologies and Costs, EPA-452/R-97-010 (Dec. 1997). 

Since the synthetic membrane of membrane cells replaces the older asbestos fiber diaphragm cells, no control precautions are necessary. Graphite (or later, titanium) cathodes avoid the use of mercury eliminating the need for mercury control. However, if membrane cells are operated on the same site as mercury cells, they do require a separate brine circuit from the mercury cells to maintain their mercury-free status. 

In operation, this shelf type of converter was manually controlled by regulation of the cold air valves between the catalyst shelves with minute to minute observations of pyrometers by the operator of each converter. The largest of these converters apparently could produce about SO pounds of phthalic anhydride per 24 hours on good days. A boiling mercury controlled converter of approximately the same overall dimensions can produce 1800 pounds of phthalic anhydride per 24 hours, and one operator can control about eight or more of these machines. ... 

This Downs type of mercury-controlled catalytic converter has been largely responsible for the expanded production of phthalic anhydride which has occurred since this country started making its own dye intermediates at the close of the war because of the operating economics made possible in the oxidation. A boiling mercury converter of approximately the same overall dimensions as the first-mentioned air-injector type has a capacity of from 1600 to 1800 pounds of phthalic anhydride per 24 hours and is so automatic in operation that a single operator can manage as many as eight of them. 

Pavlish, J.J., Sondreal, E.A., Mann, M.D., Olson, E.S. Galbreath, K.C., Laudal, D.L., and Benson, S.A. 2003. Status review of mercury control options for coal-fired power plants. Fuel Processing Technology, 82 89-165. 

Air Emissions. In an early study of methods for plantwide mercury control, Hine and coworkers [101] recognized at the outset that control of emissions in the cell room ventilating air would be the most difficult task. This situation is due to the diversity of possible sources and the difficulty of treatment of the air. The use of gravity ventilation in cell rooms (Section 8.2.3) noakes such treatment impracticable. Likewise, it is not... 

There are several other groups of insoluble mercury compounds. One plant that included a fluorocarbons unit adopted a different approach to mercury control [108]. The waste HCl from fluorocarbon production was shipped several hundred kilometers to a steel mill for use in pickle liquor. The trucks that carried the waste acid then returned empty. The solution adopted was to fill some of the returned trucks with waste pickle liquor, which is strong in FeCh- This was available at a very low cost and nearly zero incremental freight expense. Combining it with chloride-containing wastewater that had been made alkaline produced the reaction ... 

Carbon-based processes (both direct injection and fixed-bed) have been developed for control of mercury emission from municipal- and hazardous-waste incinerators [10, llj. Existing data from the incinerators provide some insight on mercury control, but these data cannot be used directly for coal-fired utilities because mercury concentrations, species, and process conditions differ greatly [Ij. For example, municipal solid waste (MSW) mercury concentrations (200 to 1000 pg/m ) are one to two orders of magnitude larger than for flue gases generated by coal combustion sources. 

Offen G, Shick N, Chang R, Chu P, Dene C, Rhudy R. Mercury control for coal-fired power plants-status and challenges. Mod Power Syst 2005,24-9. 

Cuiiie JE, DeBerry DW, Blythe GM. Enhanced mercury control by wet FGD systems, Proceedings of the International conference on Air Quality VI Mercury, trace elements, SO3, Particulate Matter, and Greenhouse Gases, 2007, Arlington, VA, Sept 24-27. 

Milobowski MG, Amihein GT, Kudlac GA, Yurchison DM. Wet FGD Enhanced Mercury Control for Coal-fired Utility Boilers. The U.S. EPA/DOE/EPRI Combined Power Plant Air. Pollutant Conti ol Symposium The Mega Symposium Chicago, Illinois, USA, 2001. 

Mercury inhalation has been linked to Alzheimer disease and autism, and limitation to mercury emissions is currently the subject of legislation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (ERA) who will impose limits on mercury emissions from coal-tired boilers in the utilities industry. Mercury control techniques currently used in the industry include the use of flue-gas desulfurization (EGD) units and, as a result of mercury measurements around these units, it is known that oxidized and not elemental mercury is removed by the EGDs. Consequently, one method to increase mercury removal by this type of unit is to introduce a catalyst to promote the oxidation of mercury. Mercury measurement [128,129] led to the discovery that a gold-coated sand sample in a simulated flue-gas environment absorbed elemental mercury until an equilibrium was established and desorption of oxidized mercury began. Individual components of the simulated flue-gas have been evaluated for their effect on the oxidation of mercury, and it was found that nitrogen dioxide and hydrogen... 

Apphcation of a gold catalyst to promote mercury control at a coal-fired utUity, S. Meischen, Proc. Cat. Gold 2003, Vancouver, BC, Canada, Sept.- Oct. 2003. 

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