SBIR-STTR Award

This project addresses the national need to continuouslymonitor and control mercury emissions from industrial, municipal, andenergy-production sources. The proposed development of novel chemicalmicrosensors and instrumentation have a unique combination of advantagesto satisfy this need. The small sample size required by the microsensorsin these instruments will both prolong their useful lifetime in corrosiveenvironments and greatly simplify any sample-conditioning requirements.Moreover, they can be mass produced on silicon wafers using standardmethods to significantly reduce costs, while achieving highreproducibility and minimizing calibration requirements. The objective ofthis Phase I research is to determine the feasibility of developing a newgeneration of mercury continuous emissions monitors based on robustthin-film chemical microsensors. Phase I research will focus on thedevelopment, evaluation and optimization of the microsensors forreal-time continuous monitoring of mercury. These microsensors willprovide the basis for the fabrication of continuous emissions analyzerfor both elemental and total mercury in Phase II that will be evaluatedat several stationary sources prior to commercialization in Phase III.

This project addresses the national need to continuouslymonitor and control mercury emission from industrial, municipal andenergy-production sources. The proposed development of novel chemicalmicrosensors and instrumentation have a unique combination of advantagesto satisfy this need. The small sample size required by the microsensorsin these instruments will both prolong their useful lifetime in corrosiveenvironments and greatly simplify any sample-conditioning requirements.Moreover, they can be mass produced on silicon wafers using standardmethods to significantly reduce costs, while achieving highreproducibility and minimizing calibration requirements. The objective ofthis Phase II project is to develop a new generation of mercurycontinuous emissions monitors based on the robust thin-film chemicalmicrosensors developed in Phase I. The Phase II effort will focus on thedevelopment, evaluation and optimization of an EPA-protocol-based sampleconditioning system interfaced to an ultrasensitive mercury analyzer toachieve reliable continuous monitoring of mercury from combustionsources. This Phase II project will provide the basis for thecommercialization of a continuous mercury emissions monitor that will beevaluated at several combustion sources prior to commercialization inPhase III.