Mercury Emission from Anthropogenic Sources in Poland and Their Scenarios to the Year 2020

This paper reviews the current state of knowledge regarding sources of anthropogenic mercury emission in Poland for the year 2005 and presents projection of mercury emission in perspective to the year 2020. These projections are treated separately as emissions from by-product sources and from product use since abatement strategies for these two source categories are very different. Emission projections until the year 2020 were prepared for: Status Quo scenario, Extended Emission Control scenario (EXEC) as well as for Maximum Feasible Technical Reduction scenario (MFTR). The general results were that Hg emission in Status Quo scenario, where no further action is taken to reduce mercury emission is predicted to rise between 2005 and 2020 for by-product sources, as a consequence of growing production of industrial goods and the consumption of raw materials, and is expected to be at the same level for the year 2020 for product use sources in comparison to the base year 2005, where no changes in consumption model were assumed. For EXEC and MFTR scenarios, assuming implementation of efficient control devices and changes in consumption model, decrease of mercury emission from by-product sources is expected between 2005 and 2020. Emission from mercury use in products for these scenarios is also predicted to decrease as a result of drop in mercury consumption. This paper presents also the social benefits for Poland result from Hg emission reduction and considered separately for ingestion and inhalation pathway. The costs and the social benefits related to the reduction of the heavy metals and PM2.5 are also presented.