Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions
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10.5194/acpd-10-4719-2010
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/4719/2010/
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/4719/2010/acpd-10-4719-2010.html
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/4719/2010/acpd-10-4719-2010.pdf
4719
4752
2010-02-16
Global mercury emissions to the atmosphere from anthropogenic and natural sources
N. Pirrone
pirrone@iia.cnr.it
S. Cinnirella
X. Feng
R. B. Finkelman
H. R. Friedli
J. Leaner
R. Mason
A. B. Mukherjee
G. B. Stracher
D. G. Streets
K. Telmer
CNR-Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research – Division of Rende, Rende, Italy
State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, China
Geosciences Department, University of Texas, Dallas, USA
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, USA
CSIR, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, Hartford, USA
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Division of Science and Mathematics, East Georgia College, Swainsboro, GA, USA
Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, USA
School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada
This paper provides an up-to-date assessment of global mercury
emissions from anthropogenic and natural sources. On an annual basis,
natural sources account for 5207 Mg of mercury released to the global
atmosphere, including the contribution from re-emission processes,
which are emissions of previously deposited mercury originating from
anthropogenic and natural sources, and primary emissions from natural
reservoirs. Anthropogenic sources, which include a large number of
industrial point sources, are estimated to account for 2320 Mg of
mercury emitted annually. The major contributions are from fossil-fuel
fired power plants (810 Mg yr<sup>−1</sup>), artisanal small scale gold
mining (400 Mg yr<sup>−1</sup>), non-ferrous metals manufacturing
(310 Mg yr<sup>−1</sup>), cement production (236 Mg yr<sup>−1</sup>), waste
disposal (187 Mg yr<sup>−1</sup>) and caustic soda production
(163 Mg yr<sup>−1</sup>). Therefore, our current estimate of global
mercury emissions suggests that the overall contribution from natural
sources (primary emissions+re-emissions) and anthropogenic sources
is nearly 7527 Mg per year, the uncertainty associated with these
estimates are related to the typology of emission sources and source
regions.
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