Mercury Release from Taconite During Heating

Abstract

The taconite industry is under pressure to reduce the emissions of mercury from their induration process. Previous studies have indicated that greater than 90 percent of the mercury in the green balls being fed to the induration process is vaporized during the induration. The Minnesota DNR is in the process of conducting a bench-scale study to determine the rate of mercury release as a function of temperature during the heating of taconite. This program is a supplement to that work. The objectives of this program were to determine the role of oxidation in the release of mercury at various temperatures and to provide samples of heated material for Mossbauer spectroscopic analysis.