Hg absorption in aqueous permanganate

Abstract

Aqueous acidic permanganate is known to be an effective solvent for elemental Hg vapor. EPA method 29 specifies permanganate as the scrubbing solution for determination of elemental mercury in gas streams. Permanganate has been used to collect mercury in flue-gas field sampling procedures. Even though permanganate is an expensive reagent, it is effective at low concentration for mercury removal, so it may be commercially useful for air-pollution control or removal of mercury from other gases. No previous work was found giving the rate of reaction of permanganate with mercury. Therefore, the objective of this study was to quantify the kinetics in a well-characterized gas-liquid contactor.