Mercury detection device wins innovation award
3 May 2000
An alliance between industry and academia has won PS Analytical the 1999 Industrial Innovation Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry. The award was for a new way of detecting the presence of mercury, which has specific application for the petrochemicals industry.
When petrochemicals are processed they often contain small amounts of mercury, as either vapour or bound in a complex to petrochemicals. As the presence of mercury can result in expensive damage to process plant, its reliable detection is of vital importance.
In collaboration with scientists from the University of Plymouth, PS Analytical began work in 1992 for Petronas Gas of Malaysia. Detection of mercury has been carried out on stack emissions, but the technology has been adapted for detection in petrochemicals. In the new analysis method, petrochemical samples are heated until they vapourise. The gases are then passed through a gold `trap' that allows standard petrochemicals through but retains any mercury complexes. The total amount of mercury compounds trapped can then be measured and then the amount in the original sample calculated. The project also showed the type of mercury compounds present.
Professor Paul Stockwell, managing director of PS Analytical said: `The challenge of this problem could only be achieved through industrial and academic collaboration and the reward shows what can be achieved through these relationships.'
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