Abstract
In India, coal utilization in power generation, constitutes as the single largest source of mercury emissions. This study presents mercury content in Indian sub-bituminous and bituminous coals that are primarily used as fuel in large-scale electricity generation facilities. A total of 165 number of coal samples have been collected from the major coal producing regions of the country. Along with the mercury content, other chemical parameters like moisture, ash, volatile matter, total Sulphur and gross calorific value were also analyzed. Mercury concentrations of these coals were found to be between 3 and 554 µg/kg, with an average of 175 µg/kg. Variation of the mercury content with the rank parameters like volatile matter, carbon content, ash and total Sulphur were also assessed. No significant correlations were observed with the rank parameters but a general trend of increasing mercury with ash content is discernible.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the coal companies like subsidiaries of Coal India Limited and Singerani Collieries Company Limited for allowing collecting representative coal samples from their mines. Authors are also thankful to the Power Companies for arranging for collection of coal samples. Authors thankfully acknowledge Director, CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Dhanbad for funding the study and providing constant encouragement and support.
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Das, T.B., Senapati, R.N. & Agarwalla, H. Mercury in Indian Thermal Coals. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 105, 502–512 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-020-02945-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-020-02945-3