SBIR-STTR Award

The Clean Air Act of 1990 has raised the concern over low trance concentrations of metals in flue gas from electrical generation plants, municipal waste incinerators, and heavy industry plants. Monitoring will be required to determine the extent of the environmental impact and offers an opportunity to empirically minimize it. Here EEI proposes the development of an ultra sensitive continuous monitor for mercury and other trance elements (e.g., Pb, AS, CD, etc.). The monitor is based upon plasma emission spectroscopy using an innovative microwave-driven plasma source. The plasma source is capable of obtaining electron energies ö 2 eV which will result in a minimum detection limit for mercury ö 0.1 ppb ö 1 g/M3. This is an order of magnitude more sensitive than presently available technologies, and is anticipated to meet monitoring requirement

The Clean Air Act of 1990 has raised concern over traceconcentrations of metals in flue gas from electrical generation plants,municipal waste incinerators, and heavy industrial plants. Monitoringwill be required to determine the extent of the environmental impact andoffers an opportunity to empirically minimize it. In Phase I, EEI reachedtheir goal of achieving a minimum detection limit for mercury insimulated flue gas of less than 0.1 ppb _ 1 µg/m3. In Phase II, EEIproposes to continue the development of their instrument concept byoptimizing the instrumentation and testing a prototype on an actual coalfired plant. They expect to maintain the Phase I detection limit of lessthan 0.1 ppb _ 1 µg/m3 and, thereby, meet anticipated monitoringrequirements. Other trace metals, including Pb, Cr, Cd, and As, will bemeasured by this method