DEVELOPMENT OF AN ULTRA SENSITIVE CONTINUOUS MONITOR FOR MERCURY AND OTHER TRACE METALS IN FLUE GAS

The Clean Air Act of 1990 has raised the concern over low trance concentrationsof metals in flue gas from electrical generation plants, municipal wasteincinerators, and heavy industry plants. Monitoring will be required todetermine the extent of the environmental impact and offers an opportunity toempirically minimize it. Here EEI proposes the development of an ultra sensitivecontinuous monitor for mercury and other trance elements (e.g., Pb, AS, CD,etc.). The monitor is based upon plasma emission spectroscopy using aninnovative microwave-driven plasma source. The plasma source is capable ofobtaining electron energies ¿ 2 eV which will result in a minimum detection limitfor mercury ¿ 0.1 ppb ¿ 1 g/M3. This is an order of magnitude more sensitivethan presently available technologies, and is anticipated to meet monitoringrequirements.