The US EPA has recently announced that it will begin to regulate emission of mercury from coal-fired plants, the largest source of human-made mercury pollution, generating approximately 43 tons of mercury each year. Mercury is released not only in stack gasses, but in plant waste and the coal cleaning process. The EPA will propose final regulations on coal-fired power plants by December 15, 2003.
Mercury in coal has been traditionally measured by CVAAS (Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry), which is a time and labor consuming method that relies on complicated wet chemistry sample preparation.
The DMA-80 Direct Mercury Analyzer from Milestone eliminates the sample preparation step, allowing you to completely process your coal sample in about 10 minutes, instead of the hours needed for traditional methods. This rapid testing (which is as accurate, if not more so, that CVAAS) gives you the answers you need without consuming valuable time and effort.
Other benefits include:
Process both liquid and solid samples – no matter the matrix you will get an accurate total mercury reading. Process coal, coal ash, sludge, etc…
The built-in 40-position autosampler allows unattended operation for a large number of samples
The DMA-80 is portable enough to be stationed where you need it most.
Sample the coal deliveries as they come in and the plant waste before it goes out.
No chemicals are used in the process so no additional toxic wastes are generated.
Completely compatible with US EPA Method 7473 and ASTM Method D6722-01
