• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.917-924
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• 2010

The practicability of transgenic tobacco engineered to express bacterial native mercuric reductase (MerA), responsible for the transport of $Hg^{2+}$ ions into the cell and their reduction to elemental mercury ($Hg^0$), without any codon modification, for phytoremediation of mercury pollution was evaluated. Transgenic tobacco plants reduce mercury ions to the metallic form; take up metallic mercury through their roots; and evolve the less toxic elemental mercury. Transformed tobacco produced a large amount of merA protein in leaves and showed a relatively higher resistance phenotype to $HgCl_2$ than wild type. Results suggest that the integrated merA gene, encoding mercuric reductase, a key enzyme of the bacterial mer operon, was stably integrated into the tobacco genome and translated to active MerA, which catalyzes the bioconversion of toxic $Hg^{2+}$ to the least toxic elemental $Hg^0$, and suggest that MerA is capable of reducing the $Hg^{2+}$, probably via NADPH as an electron donor. The transgenic tobacco expressing merA volatilized significantly more mercury than wild-type plants. This is first time we are reporting the expression of a bacterial native merA gene via the nuclear genome of Nicotiana tabacum, and enhanced mercury volatilization from tobacco transgenics. The study clearly indicates that transgenic tobacco plants are reasonable candidates for the remediation of mercurycontaminated areas.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.238-248
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• 2008

This study investigated mercury emission at various combustion conditions and analyzed mercury species in flue gas from coal combustion at a laboratory scale furnace in coal. The results of this study can be used to predict and to assess mercury emission at coal boilers and power plants. The coal used in the plants generally contains about $0.02{\sim}0.28\;mg$ of mercury per kg. Bituminous and anthracite coal used for the experiment contained 0.049 and 0.297 mg/kg of mercury, respectively. Mercury emissions during coal combustion at temperatures range of $600^{\circ}C$ to $1,400^{\circ}C$ was measured and analysed using Ontario Hydro method; the speciation changes were also observed in mercury emissions. The results showed higher fraction of elemental mercury than that of oxidised mercury at most temperatures tested in this experiment. The fraction of elemental mercury was lower in combustion of anthracite coal than in bituminous combustion. As expected, equilibrium calculations and real power plants data showed good similarity. The distribution of particle size in flue gas had the higher peak in size above $2.5\;{\mu}m$. However the peak of mercury enrichment in dust was at $0.3\;{\mu}m$, which could be easily emitted into atmosphere without filtration in combustion system. When the CEA(Chemical equilibrium and Application) code was used for combustion equilibrium calculation, Cl was found to be the important component effecting mercury oxidation, especially at the lower temperatures under $900^{\circ}C$.

• Carbon letters
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.238-246
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• 2014

People have been concerned about mercury emissions for decades because of the extreme toxicity, persistence, and bioaccumulation of methyl Hg transformed from emitted Hg. This paper presents an overview of research related to mercury control technology and identifies areas requiring additional research and development. It critically reviews measured mercury emissions progress in the development of promising control technologies. This review provides useful information to scientists and engineers in this field.

• Clean Technology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.38-45
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• 2022

CuCl₂-loaded V₂O₅-WO₃/TiO₂ catalyst showed excellent activity in the catalytic oxidation of elemental mercury to oxidized mercury even under SCR condition in the presence of NH₃, which is well known to significantly inhibit the oxidation activity of elemental mercury by HCl. Moreover, it was confirmed that, when SO₂ was present in the reaction gas together with HCl, excellent elemental mercury oxidation activity was maintained even though CuCl₂ supported on the catalyst surface was converted to CuSO₄. This is thought to be because not only HCl but also the SO₄ component generated on the catalyst surface promotes the oxidation of elemental mercury. However, in the presence of SO₂, the total mercury balance before and after the catalytic reaction was not matched, especially as the concentration of SO₂ increased. In order to understand the cause of this, further studies are needed to investigate the effect of SO₂ in the SnCl₂ aqueous solution employed for mercury species analysis and the effect of sulfate ions generated on elemental mercury oxidation. It was confirmed that SO₂ also promotes NO_x removal activity, which is thought to be because the increase in acid sites by SO₄ generated on the catalyst surface by SO₂ facilitates NH₃ adsorption. The composition change and structure of the components present on the catalyst surface under various reaction conditions were measured by XRD and XRF. These measurement results were presented as a rational explanation for the results that SO₂ enhances the oxidation activity of elemental mercury and the NO_x removal activity in this catalyst system.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.207-216
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• 2021

Major anthropogenic emissions of elemental mercury (Hg⁰) occur from coal-fired power plants, and the emissions can be controlled successfully using NH₃-SCR (selective catalytic reduction) systems with catalysts. Although the catalysts can easily convert the gaseous mercury into Hg²⁺ species, the reactions are greatly dependent on the flue gas constituents and SCR conditions. Numerous deNO_xing catalysts have been proposed for considerable reduction in power plant mercury emissions; however, there are few studies to date of elemental mercury oxidation using SCR processes with MW- and full-scale coal-fired boilers. In these flue gas streams, the chemistry of the mercury oxidation is very complicated. Coal types, deNO_xing catalytic systems, and operating conditions are critical in determining the extent of the oxidation. Of these parameters, halogen element levels in coals may become a key vehicle for obtaining better Hg⁰ oxidation efficiency. Such halogens are Cl, Br, and F and the former one is predominant in coals. The chlorine exists in the form of salts and is transformed to gaseous HCl with a trace amount of Cl₂ during the course of coal combustion. The HCl acts as a very powerful promoter for high catalytic Hg⁰ oxidation; however, this can be strongly dependent on the type of coal because of a wide variation in the chlorine contents of coal.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.479-484
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• 2006

Removal of elemental mercury $(Hg^0)$ with the reactive species produced from dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) was studied. We investigated the effect of operating parameters such as the applied voltage, residence time, initial concentration and co-existence of other pollutants. The removal of $(Hg^0)$ was significantly promoted by an increase in the applied voltage of the DBD reactor system. It is important to note that at the same input power, the removal efficiency of $(Hg^0)$ was much higher than that of NO gas. These results imply that if the DBD system is used as a NOx treatment facility, it is capable of removing $(Hg^0)$ simultaneously with NOx.

• Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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• v.49 no.4
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• pp.245-247
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• 2011

There were only a few reports of mercury on pulmonary artery. However, there is no data on surgery related mercury dissemination. The objective of the present article is to describe one case of postoperative injected mercury dissemination. A 19-year-old man presented severe neck pain including meningeal irritation sign and abdominal pain after injection of mercury for the purpose of suicide. Radiologic study showed injected mercury in the neck involving high cervical epidural space and subcutaneous layer of abdomen. Partial hemilaminectomy and open mercury evacuation of spinal canal was performed. For the removal of abdominal subcutaneous mercury, C-arm guided needle aspiration was done. After surgery, radiologic study showed disseminated mercury in the lung, heart, skull base and low spinal canal. Neck pain and abdominal pain were improved after surgery. During 1 month after surgery, there was no symptom of mercury intoxication except increased mercury concentration of urine, blood and hair. We assumed the bone work during surgery might have caused mercury dissemination. Therefore, we recommend minimal invasive surgical technique for removal of injected mercury. If open exposures are needed, cautious surgical technique to prohibit mercury dissemination is necessary and normal barrier should be protected to prevent the migration of mercury.

• Clean Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.269-276
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• 2014

This study was aimed to develop catalytic system for the dry-based reduction of oxidized mercury ($Hg^{2+}$) to elemental mercury ($Hg^0$) which is one of the most important components comprising mercury continuous emission monitoring system (Hg-CEMS). Based on the standard potential in oxidation-reduction reaction, transition metals including Fe, Cu, Ni and Co were selected as possible candidates for catalyst proceeding spontaneous reduction of $Hg^{2+}$ into $Hg^0$. These transition metal catalysts revealed high activity for reduction of $Hg^{2+}$ into $Hg^0$ in the absence of oxygen in reactant gases. However, their activities were greatly decreased in the presence of oxygen, which was attributed to the transformation of transition metals by oxygen to the corresponding transition metal oxides with less catalytic activity for the reduction of oxidized mercury. Hydrogen supplied to the reactant gases significantly enhanced $Hg^{2+}$ reduction activity even in the presence of oxygen. It might be due to occurrence of combustion reaction between $H_2$ and $O_2$ causing the consumption of $O_2$ at such high reaction temperature at which oxidized mercury reduction reaction took place. Because the system showed high activity for $Hg^{2+}$ reduction to $Hg^0$, which was compatible to that of wet-chemistry technology using $SnCl_2$ solution, the catalytic reduction system of Fe catalyst with the supply of $H_2$ could be employed as a commercial system for the reduction of oxidized mercury to elemental mercury.

• Clean Technology
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.172-180
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• 2017

Thermodynamic evaluation indicates that nearly 100% conversion of elemental mercury to oxidized mercury can be attained by HCl of several tens of ppm level at the temperature window of SCR reaction. Cu-, Fe-, Mn-chloride loaded $V_2O_5-WO_3/TiO_2$ catalysts revealed good NO removal activity at the operating temperature window of SCR process. The catalysts with high desorption temperature indicating adsorption strength of $NH_3$ revealed higher NO removal activity. The HCl fed to the reaction gases promoted the oxidation of mercury. However, the activity for the oxidation of elemental mercury to oxidized mercury by HCl was suppressed by $NH_3$ inhibiting the adsorption of HCl to catalyst surface under SCR reaction condition containing $NH_3$ for NO removal. Metal chloride loaded $V_2O_5-WO_3/TiO_2$ catalysts showed much higher activity for mercury oxidation than $V_2O_5-WO_3/TiO_2$ catalyst without metal chloride under SCR reaction condition. This is primarily attributed to the participation of chloride in metal chloride on the catalyst surface promoting the oxidation of elemental mercury.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.4258-4264
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• 2011

The total mercury concentration ($Hg_T$) of surface snow samples collected along a ~1500 km transect in east Queen Maud Land was determined using inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry to address the behavior of Hg on the Antarctic Plateau. Due to the volatile nature of mercury, measures were taken against Hg loss from standard solutions by choosing appropriate container material and stabilizing agents. Glass bottles with Teflon-lined caps were superior to Teflon and polyethylene containers in protecting against Hg loss, but addition of gold chloride ($AuCl_3$) or bromine chloride (BrCl) was necessary to ensure preservation of Hg. As Hg loss was also observed in snowmelt samples, our analysis may underestimate the actual amount of HgT in the snow. Even so, the measured HgT was still very low (< 0.4-10.8 pg $g^{-1}$, n = 44) without a signal of depositional enhancement accompanying photo-oxidation of atmospheric elemental mercury in austral midsummer. Moreover, the dynamic variation along the traverse implies spatial and temporal heterogeneity in its source processes.