Overview of flue gas mercury pollution control technologies and attempts to explore pathways for electrochemical removal of mercury and mercury resourcing

Mercury emissions derived from coal combustion, metal sintering, goldmining etc., are receiving increasing attention because they can pose a serious risk to human health and the environment. Elemental mercury is one of the most difficult forms to handle due to its insolubility in water and volatility and so on. This review comments the progress of research on various methods for the removal of Hg0 such as air pollution control devices (APCDs), adsorption, catalytic oxidation, advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) and electrochemical process. Electrochemical method is an environmentally friendly technology which uses electrode reactions to remove pollutants directly or uses special electrode materials to oxidise reactants by producing strong oxidising groups under certain conditions. The mercury removal performances and reaction mechanisms of electrochemical technology are fully discussed, which aims to strengthen the understanding of this research topic and provide a valuable reference for the development of Hg0 sustainable, recyclable and resource-based techniques.