Mercury – a safety analysis
Abstract
Senior Executive Engineer (QHIN) John Roberts' paper, “Mercury – its nature and implications for the power industry”, has been uploaded to our intranet.
In reviewing its properties and use in the power industry, the paper outlines:
- Mercury’s occurrence in nature
- Biochemistry and mercury
- Mercury in coal
- Emission controls
- CFBs and Mercury emissions
The paper was written in response to concerns raised about mercury emissions from a potential power plant using circulating fluid bed (CFB) combustion technology to burn coal. Competing technologies would be pulverised coal (PF) or grate-fired boilers.
In the United States (US), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DoE) sponsor work to gather emissions data and help the US government develop increasingly tight control over emissions.