Estimating mercury emissions from a zinc smelter in relation to China’s mercury control policies

• Published in: Environmental pollution (1987) Vol. 158; no. 10; pp. 3347 - 3353
• Main Authors: Wang, S.X., Song, J.X., Li, G.H., Wu, Y., Zhang, L., Wan, Q., Streets, D.G., Chin, Conrad K., Hao, J.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - analysis; Air Pollution - prevention & control; Air Pollution - statistics & numerical data; Applied sciences; Atmosphere - chemistry; Atmospheric pollution; Byproducts; China; Cleaning; Control policy; Electrostatics; Emission factor; Emissions control; Environmental Policy; Exact sciences and technology; Flues; Hg removal efficiency; Hydrometallurgical zinc smelting; Mercury; Mercury - analysis; Metallurgy; Other pollution sources in industry; Pollution; Pollution sources. Measurement results; Smelters; Speciation; Towers; Zinc; Asia; China; China, People's Rep; Emission factor; Control policy; Hydrometallurgical zinc smelting; Hg removal efficiency; Speciation; Environmental policy; Pollution control; Emission content; Metallurgical industry; Heavy metal; Gaseous effluent; Emission inventory; Trace element; Air pollution; Poison; Mercury; Anthropogenic factor
• ISSN: 0269-7491; 1873-6424
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2010.07.032

Mercury concentrations of flue gas at inlet/outlet of the flue gas cleaning, electrostatic demister, reclaiming tower, acid plant, and mercury contents in zinc concentrate and by-products were measured in a hydrometallurgical zinc smelter. The removal efficiency of flue gas cleaning, electrostatic demister, mercury reclaiming and acid plant was about 17.4%, 30.3%, 87.9% and 97.4% respectively. Flue gas cleaning and electrostatic demister captured 11.7% and 25.3% of the mercury in the zinc concentrate, respectively. The mercury reclaiming tower captured 58.3% of the mercury in the zinc concentrate. About 4.2% of the mercury in the zinc concentrate was captured by the acid plant. Consequently, only 0.8% of the mercury in the zinc concentrate was emitted to the atmosphere. The atmospheric mercury emission factor was 0.5 g t −1 of zinc produced for the tested smelter, indicating that this process offers the potential to effectively reduce mercury emissions from zinc smelting. Modern scale production equipped with acid plant and Hg reclaiming tower will significantly reduce Hg emissions from zinc smelters in China.