Mercury Stable Isotope Fractionation During Coal Combustion in Coal-Fired Boilers: Reconciling Atmospheric Hg Isotope Observations with Hg Isotope Fractionation Theory

Mercury (Hg) stable isotope is a useful tool to understand the transformation of atmospheric Hg. The observation on the enrichment of heavier isotopes in gaseous elemental Hg (GEM) relative to oxidized Hg-II species in atmosphere cannot be convincingly explained by isotope fractionation of Hg redox processes. This review shows that the large Hg isotope mass dependent fractionation (MDF) in coal-fired boilers is one of the underlying reasons. The reported Hg isotope data of feed coals and their combustion products are first summarized to give a general overview of how Hg isotopes fractionate before Hg discharge from coal-fired boilers. Then, predictive MDF models are discussed to simulate Hg-202 values of different Hg species in coal combustion flue gases. The discharged GEM is predicted to have the highest Hg-202 followed by gaseous Hg-II and particulate-bound Hg-II, which is in consistent with the observed MDF pattern of atmospheric Hg species.