I-Corps: Commercialization of a Mercury Calibration Device

I-Corps：水银校准装置的商业化

• 批准号: 1445933
• 负责人: Seth Lyman
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Utah State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2014-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1445933&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Commercialization; Mercury; Calibration; Device

Health impacts from mercury typically occur from consumption of mercury-contaminated fish, but most mercury pollution is emitted to the atmosphere. Impacts from mercury pollution in the aquatic environment depend on atmospheric transport, chemistry, and deposition processes. In recent decades mercury oxidation and deposition of oxidized mercury compounds have been found to be particularly important steps in mercury biogeochemical cycling. Atmospheric oxidized mercury measurements are made routinely by dozens of research and regulatory groups around the country, and these measurements have informed recent regulatory efforts by EPA and other agencies. Currently, no commercially-available method exists for verifying atmospheric oxidized mercury measurements. Further, recent research has shown that commercial instruments for oxidized mercury do not report accurate measurements under some atmospheric conditions.This team proposes to commercialize an automated calibration device that generates ultra-trace concentrations of gas-phase mercury compounds. The team has developed a permeation oven and flow and processing system to generate ultra-trace concentrations of gas-phase mercury compounds for calibration of atmospheric mercury equipment. It uses uniquely-designed permeation tubes to pass controlled amounts of mercury compounds into an inert gas stream. All wetted parts in the instrument are extremely inert and precisely heated to allow for quantitative passage of reactive and semi-volatile compounds. The system is designed for atmospheric mercury, but the technology can also be used for other reactive compounds.

汞对健康的影响通常发生在食用受汞污染的鱼类时，但大多数汞污染都排放到大气中。汞污染对水环境的影响取决于大气迁移、化学和沉积过程。近几十年来，人们发现汞的氧化和氧化态汞化合物的沉积是汞地球化学循环中特别重要的步骤。全国各地的数十个研究和监管团体定期进行大气氧化汞测量，这些测量为EPA和其他机构最近的监管工作提供了信息。目前，没有商业上可用的方法来验证大气氧化汞测量。此外，最近的研究表明，商用氧化汞仪器在某些大气条件下无法报告准确的测量结果。该团队建议将一种自动校准设备商业化，该设备可生成超痕量浓度的气相汞化合物。 该团队开发了一种渗透炉、流动和处理系统，以产生超痕量浓度的气相汞化合物，用于校准大气汞设备。它使用精心设计的渗透管将受控量的汞化合物送入惰性气体流中。仪器中的所有润湿部件都具有极强的惰性，并精确加热，以允许反应性和半挥发性化合物定量通过。该系统是针对大气中的汞而设计的，但该技术也可用于其他活性化合物。