A method is described for quantitative determination of mercury present in a sample (liquid or solid). The method involves converting mercury compounds to elemental mercury, removing all elemental mercury from the sample in vapor form by means of vacuum, passing the mercury vapor through a column which absorbs and captures all of the mercury vapor by converting it to a halide compound, eluting the mercury halide from the column, and colorimetrically analyzing for the amount of mercury halide collected.
A method and system are provided for creating a mercury halide standard, and for using that standard to test a mercury analyzer system. Gaseous elemental mercury of a known concentration from a gas cylinder and a halogen donor are fed to a reaction chamber where they react to form mercury halide. The mercury halide is fed to a mercury analyzer system where it is converted to reform gaseous elemental mercury which is then measured by a mercury analyzer. By comparing either the amount of elemental mercury supplied to the reaction chamber or the amount of mercury halide formed in the reaction chamber with the amount of elemental mercury converted from the mercury halide, the ability of the mercury analyzer system to convert mercury halide to gaseous elemental mercury can be evaluated.
A method and system are provided for creating a mercury halide standard, and for using that standard to test a mercury analyzer system. Gaseous elemental mercury of a known concentration from a gas cylinder and a halogen donor are fed to a reaction chamber where they react to form mercury halide. The mercury halide is fed to a mercury analyzer system where it is converted to reform gaseous elemental mercury which is then measured by a mercury analyzer. By comparing either the amount of elemental mercury supplied to the reaction chamber or the amount of mercury halide formed in the reaction chamber with the amount of elemental mercury converted from the mercury halide, the ability of the mercury analyzer system to convert mercury halide to gaseous elemental mercury can be evaluated.
A calibration assembly generates elemental mercury and oxidized mercury for calibrating components of a mercury monitoring system, including making necessary adjustments to efficiencies of a mercury compound converter and an elemental mercury detector. The calibrator generates an elemental mercury sample having a known elemental mercury concentration, [Hg.sup.0].sub.1 and combines an oxidizing component with the elemental mercury sample, thereby producing a reduced concentration of elemental mercury [Hg.sup.0].sub.2 within the sample. The calibrator measures the concentration of elemental mercury [Hg.sup.0].sub.2 within the sample and calculates a difference between the known elemental mercury concentration, [Hg.sup.0].sub.1 and the reduced concentration [Hg.sup.0].sub.2. The difference between [Hg.sup.0].sub.1 and [Hg.sup.0].sub.2 is substantially equal to the concentration of oxidized mercury produced by the calibrator. The concentration of oxidized mercury can also be calculated as the difference between elemental mercury detected after passing a sample stream containing oxidized mercury through a channel which includes the converter and the reduced concentration [Hg.sup.0].sub.2 detected after passing the sample stream through a channel which bypasses the converter. By providing oxidized mercury at calculated concentrations, the calibrator allows a user to calibrate continuous emission monitoring systems for accurate response to both elemental mercury and oxidized mercury.
