Johnson Matthey’s advanced SCR catalysts can achieve high Hg0 conversions under a variety of power plant conditions for cleaner energy and cleaner air.

Mercury is one of the most volatile of all the heavy elements and is known for its toxicity, particularly in the form of methylmercury.  The US Environmental Protection Agency‘s recent regulations (Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, MATS) are heavily focused on Hg removal from coal-fired and oil-fired power plants.  In order to meet this requirement utility companies have been required to either install advanced emission control technology or shutdown the power plant.  One common approach is to use existing emission control technology for NOx and SOx removal to obtain a co-benefit for Hg removal. This is done by using the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) catalyst to oxidize Hg from elemental Hg0 to oxidized Hg2+ that can then be more readily captured in the Flue Gas Desulphurization (FGD) unit.