RENEWABLE ENERGY


Emissions of mercury from


combustion facilities can be reduced by appropriate flue gas cleaning equipment


The Opsis continuous emissions monitoring system for total mercury


MERCURY EMISSIONS MONITORING


Bengt Löfstedt from Opsis explains why monitoring of total mercury emissions has become a focus area within the EU waste-to-energy industry, and how the monitoring needs can be met


H


istorically, mercury (Hg) has found its use in many products such as thermometers, batteries,


and fluorescent lamps. However, mercury is extremely toxic and has therefore been banned for use in most applications in recent times. Nevertheless, mercury continues to be released into the environment. Major anthropogenic sources are coal-fired power plants owing to the natural occurrence of mercury in coal, and


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waste incineration facilities. In the latter case, the mercury emissions come from old mercury-containing products ending up in the waste being burnt. Emissions of mercury from


combustion facilities can be reduced by appropriate flue gas cleaning equipment. To drive the installation and use of such equipment, legislation can dictate emission limits. A fairly recent example of this is found within the European Union, where the


Industrial Emissions Directive (the ‘IED’) was supplemented by a new set of Associated Emission Levels for waste incineration in 2019. These are referred to as the ‘BAT-AELs’ of the ‘WI-BATC’, where BAT stands for best available techniques and BATC for BAT conclusions. The BAT-AELs became effective in the EU member states end of 2023. One of the new BAT-AELs states


that the total mercury emissions, expressed as a daily average of


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