A CAVITY RING-DOWN SPECTROSCOPY MERCURY CONTINUOUS EMISSION MONITOR

SRD tested a number of different length cavities during this past quarter. Continuous transmission was observed with cavity lengths from 65 to 12 cm. The 65 cm cavity was replaced with a 39 cm cavity for work performed during this quarter. Flue gas components were tested for background absorptions and any interference with the determination of accurate mercury concentrations. Sulfur dioxide was found to absorb fairly strongly in the region of the mercury transition, but the Cavity Ring-Down (CRD) instrument was still able to detect mercury at subparts-per-billion by volume (ppb) levels. Additional flue gases tested included H{sub 2}O, CO, CO{sub 2}, NO, NO{sub 2}. None of these flue gas constituents showed any observable absorption in the ultraviolet region near the atomic mercury transition. Work was also initiated in speciation studies. In particular mercury chloride (HgCl{sub 2}) was tested. A mercury signal was detected from a gas stream containing HgCl{sub 2}. SRD was not able to determine definitively if there exists a spectral shift great enough to separate HgCl{sub 2} from elemental mercury in these initial tests