Mercury Emission Ratios from Coal-Fired Power Plants in the Southeastern United States during NOMADSS

We use measurements made onboard the National Science Foundation’s C-130 research aircraft during the 2013 Nitrogen, Oxidants, Mercury, and Aerosol Distributions, Sources, and Sinks (NOMADSS) experiment to examine total Hg (THg) emission ratios (EmRs) for six coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) in the s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & technology 2015-09, Vol.49 (17), p.10389-10397
Main Authors: Ambrose, Jesse L, Gratz, Lynne E, Jaffe, Daniel A, Campos, Teresa, Flocke, Frank M, Knapp, David J, Stechman, Daniel M, Stell, Meghan, Weinheimer, Andrew J, Cantrell, Christopher A, Mauldin, Roy L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerosols
Aerosols - analysis
Air Pollutants - analysis
Atmosphere - chemistry
Carbon Dioxide - analysis
Coal - analysis
Coal-fired power plants
Comparative studies
Emissions
Estimating techniques
Industrial plant emissions
Linear Models
Mercury
Mercury - analysis
Nitrogen
Nitrogen - analysis
Oxidants - chemistry
Power Plants
Southeastern United States
Sulfur Dioxide - analysis
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Summary:We use measurements made onboard the National Science Foundation’s C-130 research aircraft during the 2013 Nitrogen, Oxidants, Mercury, and Aerosol Distributions, Sources, and Sinks (NOMADSS) experiment to examine total Hg (THg) emission ratios (EmRs) for six coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) in the southeastern U.S. We compare observed enhancement ratios (ERs) with EmRs calculated using Hg emissions data from two inventories: the National Emissions Inventory (NEI) and the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI). For four CFPPs, our measured ERs are strongly correlated with EmRs based on the 2011 NEI (r 2 = 0.97), although the inventory data exhibit a −39% low bias. Our measurements agree best (to within ±32%) with the NEI Hg data when the latter were derived from on-site emissions measurements. Conversely, the NEI underestimates by approximately 1 order of magnitude the ERs we measured for one previously untested CFPP. Measured ERs are uncorrelated with values based on the 2013 TRI, which also tends to be biased low. Our results suggest that the Hg inventories can be improved by targeting CFPPs for which the NEI- and TRI-based EmRs have significant disagreements. We recommend that future versions of the Hg inventories should provide greater traceability and uncertainty estimates.
ISSN:0013-936X
1520-5851
DOI:10.1021/acs.est.5b01755