Development of a diffusion type of Reactive Gaseous Mercury (RGM) source and evaluation of the RGM collecting efficiency by KCI-coated annular denuders

Y. Lu Julia; X. Feng; Y. Hao; C. Banic; W.H. Schroeder

doi:doi:10.1051/jp4:20030575

Numéro		J. Phys. IV France Volume 107, May 2003


Page(s)		1431 - 1431
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/jp4:20030575

J. Phys. IV France 107 (2003) 1431
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:20030575

Development of a diffusion type of Reactive Gaseous Mercury (RGM) source and evaluation of the RGM collecting efficiency by KCI-coated annular denuders

Y. Lu Julia¹, X. Feng¹, Y. Hao¹, C. Banic² and W.H. Schroeder²

¹ Department of Chemistry, Biology and Chemical Engineering, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3, Canada
² Meteorological Service of Canada, Environment Canada, Air Quality Processes Research Division, 4905 Dufferin St., Toronto, Ontario M3H 5T4, Canada

Abstract
A diffusion type of RGM (HgCl ₂) source was constructed and tested in our laboratory. The temperature of the diffusion cell, which is regulated using a circulating bath, was set from -5.00 to 11.80 $^{\circ}$ C that are below the room temperature. The carrier gas is dry nitrogen and its flow rate is set to 500 ml min ^-1 using a mass flow controller. It is shown that it will at least take 48 h for the system to reach steady state condition. There is an exponential correlation between RGM emission rate from the source and the source température. In the temperature range from -5.00 to 11.80 $^{\circ}$ C, the Hg emission rate from the source varies from 1.8 to 14.2 pg min ^-1. Thé primary Hg species from the source is identified to be HgCl ₂. The RGM source has been used to evaluate the collect efficiency of KCl-coated annular denuders with and without an impactor. The results show that the impactor located upstream of the denuder can absorb up to one third of RGM in the air.