Robert Brown and Glenn Norton, two Iowa State scientists, recently received a $400,000 federal grant to research mercury emissions in coal burning.

Brown and Norton will head a team of researchers investigating the changes in mercury during coal burning.

Brown, director of ISU’s Center for Coal and the Environment, is an ISU professor and a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Ames Laboratory program director, while Norton is a scientist at the center and at Ames Lab.

Mercury was one of 189 compounds designated as a hazardous air pollutant by the 1990 Clean Air Act, according to a press release. Because coal is the most widely used fuel in generating electricity, capturing the mercury emitted when coal is burned will reduce the amount of mercury emitted into the air.

Brown said because mercury is not a high level pollutant, it has been ignored for a long time. He said mercury has a greater effect on the environment when it accumulates in the food chain.

Brown said capturing mercury is not easy, however, because of the different forms (liquid or gas) it takes during combustion.

“Different types of mercury are captured with different efficiency,” Norton said.

One of the variables affecting the form of the mercury is fly ash, which interacts with the mercury during coal combustion, Norton said in a press release.

Norton said the project goal is “to study the effects of fly ash on mercury conversion chemistry and how it affects the different mercury forms.”

He added that “mercury chemistry is poorly understood.”

In order to gain the fundamental knowledge of mercury conversion chemistry, Norton and Brown enlisted the help of a graduate student from ISU, two senior staff members from the University of North Dakota and one senior staff member from the University of Maryland-East Shore.

According to a press release, the majority of the three-year project will be performed at ISU. Bench-scale testing with simulated gas streams typical of those found in coal-burning plants as well as laboratory-scale combustion tests will be done in Brown’s facilities.

The effects of fly ash and its components, including unburned carbon, on mercury chemistry will be investigated under a wide variety of gas compositions like those found in coal-fired power plants.

Brown won two previous grants from the University Coal Research Program (UCRP) and is also the developer of R&D award-winning technology that improves the efficiency of coal-burning power plant operation.

The carbon-in-ash monitor, licensed to Ametek, Inc. of Pittsburgh Pa., helps industry monitor coal-burning efficiency, thereby decreasing air pollutants.

Norton received $1,000,000 from the DOE for developing continuous pollution monitors that analyze gases for mercury and other pollutants.