Mercury in Indian Thermal Coals
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Mercury in Indian Thermal Coals Tarit Baran Das1 · Rabi Narayan Senapati1 · Hridesh Agarwalla1 Received: 14 April 2020 / Accepted: 16 July 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract In India, coal utilization in power generation, constitutes as the single largest source of mercury emissions. This study presents mercury content in Indian sub-bituminous and bituminous coals that are primarily used as fuel in large-scale electricity generation facilities. A total of 165 number of coal samples have been collected from the major coal producing regions of the country. Along with the mercury content, other chemical parameters like moisture, ash, volatile matter, total Sulphur and gross calorific value were also analyzed. Mercury concentrations of these coals were found to be between 3 and 554 µg/kg, with an average of 175 µg/kg. Variation of the mercury content with the rank parameters like volatile matter, carbon content, ash and total Sulphur were also assessed. No significant correlations were observed with the rank parameters but a general trend of increasing mercury with ash content is discernible. Keywords Mercury · Indian coal · Thermal power plant Coal utilization as an energy source is associated with mobilization of mercury into the atmosphere through emissions and discharges into the air, water and soil (Selin 2009). Due to high volatility, persistence and tendency for bioaccumulation, emissions of mercury due to combustion of coal in utility boilers and other uses poses high health concern for the human kind (Sundseth 2010). When mercury gets into the atmosphere, water, plants and animals, exposure to humans occur, leading to potential nerve and brain damage as well as heart disease and other complications (UNEP 2013). Notwithstanding the fact that mercury is one of the least abundant elements present in coal, burning of huge quantity of coal in thermal power plants, industrial boilers and other applications has made it the single largest source of anthropogenic mercury emissions in the country (Mukherjee 2009). CSIR-CIMFR estimated that the annual mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants in India amounted to 38.5metric tonne in the year 2008 (UNEP 2014).
* Tarit Baran Das [email protected] * Hridesh Agarwalla [email protected] 1
Coal Mineral & Heavy Metal Research Group, CSIR-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Dhanbad 828108, India
In India, coal is the prime source of energy and shall continue to remain so for the coming few decades. Recent data shows that coal-fired plants account for 57% of India’s installed electricity capacity (Energy Statistics 2019). As on 31st March 2018, the estimated reserves of Indian coal up to a depth of 1200 m were 319 billion metric tonnes. The major share of 316 million tonnes is from the Gondwana coalfields and the rest comes from Tertiary coalfields. Non-coking coal constitutes more than 90% of the reserve (GSI 2017). Coal production in the country was 675.40 million tonne and the estimated total c
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