Monitoring Mercury in the Environment

There has been considerable concern about the fate of mercury in the environment for many years.

The major sources of pollution are from coal fired utilities and from natural gas production facilities. P S Analytical (PSA) has worked closely with legislators and systems providers to provide complete analytical solutions for such facilities. In the later facilities, the provision of accurate measurements of the mercury level are of considerable commercial significance as the presence of mercury can damage the plant and cause the plants to undergo expensive shutdowns. The financial burdens more than the health risks have not surprisingly been the most significant driver to provide analytical solutions.

Just when you think that your technology is able to handle every application thrown at it, then a newer, even more difficult challenge arises. To the hydrocarbon matrix why not add another component with its own challenges? Natural gas in some areas especially Kazakhstan can contain high levels of hydrogen sulphide up to 18%. This poses a considerable challenge to the analytical instrumentation. PSA’s Research and Development Team have risen to the challenge and have updated the Sir Galahad instrumentation to monitor the mercury levels reliably and to report the levels on a continuous basis with traceable data back to accepted International Standards.

Fully automated systems have been configured to meet the analytical challenge .These are constructed to operate reliably in the hostile environment and to meet accepted international measurement standards.