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Mercury (Hg) and its compounds have long been recognized as potentially hazardous to human health and the environment. Many man-made sources of mercury have been reduced in recent years through process changes and control measures. However, emissions of mercury from coal-fired power plants, while exceedingly dilute by the usual pollution standards, still constitute a major source when considered in the aggregate. Concerns over those emissions and the prospect of impending emissions regulations have led to a wide range of research projects dealing with the measurement and control of mercury in flue gas. This work has made considerable progress in improving the understanding of mercury emissions and their behavior, but inconsistencies and unexpected results have also shown that a better understanding of mercury chemistry is needed. To develop a more complete understanding of where additional research on mercury chemistry is needed, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) asked Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) to conduct a critical review of the available information as reported in the technical literature. The objectives were to summarize the current state of the art of chemistry knowledge, identify significant knowledge gaps, and recommend future research to resolve those gaps. An initial evaluation of potential review topics indicatedmore » that the scope of the review would need to be limited and focused on the most important topics relative to mercury control. To aid in this process, Argonne developed a brief survey that was circulated to researchers in the field who could help identify and prioritize the many aspects of the problem. The results of the survey were then used to design and guide a highly focused literature search that identified key papers for analysis. Each paper was reviewed, summarized, and evaluated for the relevance and quality of the information presented. The results of that work provided the basis for conclusions regarding the state of knowledge of mercury chemistry and recommendations for further research. This report begins by summarizing the survey process and describing how the results were used to shape the critical review. Analyses of information obtained from the various publications are presented chronologically, beginning with the earliest relevant publication found and concluding with the end of the review in early 2003. Finally, the conclusions and recommendations for future research are presented. The survey instrument is included in Appendix A, while detailed information on each of the publications reviewed is given in Appendix B.« less |
