Mercury might be present in metallic (Hgo), organic or inorganic ionic forms which all show unique species-dependent physical, physiological and chemical properties. Speciesspecific information is thus essential for adequate risk assessment, process control, methodological developments and quality assurance of analytical results. At present it is not well known in which chemical forms mercury is present in natural gases and condensates, and, in addition, methods for the determination of total mercury concentrations must be regarded to be of unproven reliability due to the lack of adequate standard reference materials and poor accuracy.' This deficiency of knowledge and methodological experience contrasts the needs from the oil and gas industries for dependable procedures to monitor mercury levels as a result of environmental concern and the requirement to avoid mercury induced corrosion or poisoning of catalysts. For example, mercury induced corrosion on a coil heat exchanger of a liquefaction train resulted in a long term shutdown of the Skikda (Algeria) natural gas processing plant. Problems involved in mercury removal from feedstocks have been discussed.2 In the following, the state of the art for species-specific mercury determinations will be reviewed along with discussions on the determination of total concentrations.
Hjem Publikasjon Determination and speciation of mercury i[...]