Joint EPA/DOE demonstration program for total mercury continuous emissions monitors

Continuous emissions monitoring of mercury from hazardous waste thermal treatment processes is desired for verification of emission compliance, process control, and public safety perception. Continuous real-time monitoring of mercury would permit actual measurement of mercury emissions and permit measurement of real-time (actual) mercury emissions and allow accurate (realistic) human risk assessment from hazardous thermal treatment facility operation. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed regulations that require the use of total mercury continuous emissions monitors (CEMs) on incinerators, boilers, and industrial furnaces that burn hazardous waste. These proposed regulations also include draft performance specifications for mercury CEMs. This paper describes an ongoing joint EPA/DOE program to identify and demonstrate commercially available mercury CEMs that can meet the proposed EPA performance specification and includes initial instrument test results obtained. The complete demonstration consists of a six month performance test of several commercially available total mercury CEMs at a commercial cement kiln that co-fires hazardous waste. During the performance test, several indicators of CEM performance will be evaluated (as required in the proposed performance specification), including; zero and calibration drift, relative accuracy through comparison to EPA manual Reference Methods, calibration error through testing with calibration standards, and specific interference tests. Themore » results of this extensive test program will be used to either confirm availability of mercury CEMs that meet the requirements in the proposed EPA performance specification, provide the necessary data for revision of the proposed mercury CEM performance specification, or reveal the need for further instrument development prior to deployment.« less