Where Does Mercury Originate?

Coal–fired power plants are the leading source of mercury emissions in the US. Of all the toxic air pollutants released during coal combustion, mercury causes the most severe harm to both people and the environment.

The combustion of coal emits mercury in three states: particulate mercury, oxidized mercury, and elemental mercury. The first 2 can be captured with particulate collection systems, but elemental mercury, due to its volatility and water insolubility, requires a different approach.

Tri-Mer’s Vertical/Flow (V/F) Packed Bed Scrubber reduces emissions from boiler flue gases and sewage sludge incinerators (SSIs) by up to 99.9%. It is ideally suited to coal-fired and other fossil fuel power plants, municipal waste incinerators, cement kilns, chlor-alkali plants and gold ore processing and production.

The Tri-Mer VF mercury scrubber uses a wet chemistry process that cost-effectively reduces all 3 forms of mercury in air emissions. Its novel scrubber technology transforms mercury into mercuric sulfide, a stable and manageable form of mercury that can be disposed of as non-hazardous waste.

The exceptionally high efficiency of the Tri-Mer scrubber is the result of two features unique to the Tri-Mer technology. The first is a patented oxidation system, which optimizes scrubber chemistry. The second is a characteristic of mercury that makes landfilling either impractical, or extremely costly.

Traditional scrubbers rely on activated carbon for mercury abatement. The activated carbon captures all of the contaminants in the gas stream, producing high volumes of by-product that cannot be landfilled. Tri-Mer's proprietary process separates mercury from all other solids so that the remaining solids, which comprise the bulk of collected material, can be landfilled.

Tri-Mer developed V/F packed bed scrubber technology; it was adapted for high-efficiency mercury elimination in cooperation with ADA Technologies, Inc., a leader in mercury remediation, through an EPA grant.

Mercury emissions are well-controlled with a Tri-Mer V/F Packed Bed Tower Scrubber. High temperature furnaces and incinerators are applications that are also well-served with Tri-Mer's Q-Scrub Incinerator Scrubber. Where inlet temperatures are highest (up to 1650°F) and contain PM2.5 and dioxins as well as mercury, Tri-Mer's UltraCat Catalytic Filtration System is the industry's most effective alternative.