Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 9 6 2009 10.5194/acpd-9-23565-2009 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/23565/2009/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/23565/2009/acpd-9-23565-2009.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/23565/2009/acpd-9-23565-2009.pdf 23565 23588 2009-11-05 Uncertainties in estimating mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants in China Y. Wu ywu@tsinghua.edu.cn D. G. Streets S. X. Wang J. M. Hao Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, and State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China Decision and Information Sciences Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA A detailed multiple-year inventory of mercury emissions from anthropogenic activities in China has been developed. Coal combustion and nonferrous metals production continue to be the two leading mercury sources in China, together contributing ~80% of total mercury emissions. Within our inventory, a new comprehensive sub-module for estimation of mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants in China is constructed for uncertainty case-study. The new sub-module integrates up-to-date information regarding mercury content in coal by province, coal washing and cleaning, coal consumption by province, mercury removal efficiencies by control technology or technology combinations, etc. Based on these detailed data, probability-based distribution functions are built into the sub-module to address the uncertainties of these key parameters. The sub-module incorporates Monte Carlo simulations to take into account the probability distributions of key input parameters and produce the mercury emission results in the form of a statistical distribution. 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