Study on several measuring methods of mercury emission from coal-fired power plants

Measuring mercury emission concentration from coal-fired power plant accurately is a key point to master the data of total mercury emission and develop the technique of mercury control. At present, the applied methods of measuring mercury emission from power plant mainly include: Ontario hydro method (OHM), continuous emissions monitoring system (Hg-CEMS), carbon sorbent traps (30B), and KMnO4-cold vapor atomic absorption spectrophotometry (HJ 543-2009). The four methods above were described and analyzed, their advantages and shortages were indicated. On these basis, some experimental studies were made to evaluate these methods deeply, the results show that: 30B and Hg-CEMS have perfect consistency in the measurement of total mercury emission; while the measuring results of HJ 543-2009 is lower than 30B. So, due to the rigorous design and strict quality control, the methods applied internationally have high accuracy. © 2012 Chinese Society for Electrical Engineering.