Mercury Removal for Air Quality

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has mandated up to 90% removal of mercury gases by 2007, power companies are already concerned with rising costs of materials and equipment to meet that goal. The Coleraine Lab has been working on mercury removal for over 10 years.

Our program is focused on economically removing mercury from gas seams, primarily from coal-fired power plants, but also from taconite operations. For the past three years, we have conducted a series of tests on live gas seams at the Minnesota Power Boswell Power Plant. Our goal is to remove both elemental and oxidized forms of Mercury in stack gas seams. Our process also can remove oxides of sulfur (SOx), which are the precursor to acid rain and additionally oxides of niogen (NOx).

Mercury Removal Water Quality

We are working with the Western Lake Superior Sanitary Disict (WLSSD) in Duluth to remove all forms of mercury to below one part per illion in discharge water into Lake Superior. Current EPA standards for the Great Lakes reduces mercury levels to 1.3 ppt.