The Adaptation of the Gold Amalgamation Sampling and Analytical Procedure for the Analysis of Mercury in Stack Gases to High SO2Environments Observed in Smelters,

摘要

The research described concerns field tests for the adaption of the gold amalgamation sampling procedure for the collection of mercury in gas streams having high SO2concentrations. This method,which was described in PB-210 817,consists of removing volatile mercury from the gas stream by amalgamating it on gold foil. The gold amalgam sampling and analytical procedure developed for power plants was directly amenable to the zinc smelter investigated. SO2concentrations as high as 7.5% did not affect the sampling and analytical procedure. When using a stannous chloride or distilled water scrubber during one minute runs over a wide range of flow rates reproducible results were obtained with a 95% plus recovery on the first amalgamator. The stability of the mercury-gold amalgam depends on the temperature of the gas stream. The major problem was the high sensitivity of the analytical procedure resulting in a very short sampling period. (Author)