Determination of mercury content in coal dust collected from coals

Abstract

The problems of coal dust emission are relevant in the coal industry. The greatest danger is represented by coal dust with particle sizes of less than 10 and 2.5 microns. Such fine airborne dust can have a negative impact to human health, susceptibility to weathering, tendency to long-term environment damage, settling on the soils and transferring into waters. The contents of coal dust must be controlled, therefore coal dust was included in the list of pollutants regulated by Hygenic standards GN 1.2.3685-21. It is well known that coal dust may contain potentially hazardous elements, the concentration of which is determined by the form of their occurrence in coal. Among these potentially hazardous elements, mercury compounds are the most dangerous. In this regard, works aimed at assessing the distribution of mercury in coals and airborne dust are relevant. The current paper presents the results on the determination of mercury contents in coals and airborne dust that was collected from them. Also, the granulometric composition of dust particles was shown.