Substance Flow Analysis Of Mercury In China Andimplementation Approaches For Minamata Convention

Mercury pollution has become a global environmental issue.China is not only the largest anthropogenic atmospheric mercury emitter,but also the largest anthropogenic mercury user.On April 28 th,2016,China's top legislature ratified the Minamata Convention on Mercury.This study established the mercury emission inventories to all environmental media through building the substance flow of mercury in China and developed future scenarios to analyze the implication approaches for the Minamata Convention on Mercury.Firstly,this study developed the model of substance flow of mercury which includes three phases,namely “the mercury supply and input”,“mercury flow during production” and “the re-distribution of mercury in products and by-products”.Secondly,based on the mercury substance flow model and database needed by each phase,we got the substance flow of mercury in 2010 and analyzed the uncertainty of the inputted and outputted mercury inventories quantitatively.Combining with the policy implications getting from the 2010 mercury substance flow,according to the legislation and policies related with the use and release of mercury during “the 12 th Five-year Plan” and the Minamata Convention on Mercury,we predicated the trend of the mercury use and releases in 2020 and 2030 using scenario analysis and analyzed the implementation approaches for Minamata Convention.The results show that the total inputted mercury for China in 2010 is 2,617t(2,118-4,675t),among which,1,711 t Hg coming from minerals with merucy impurities,906 t Hg coming from mined mercury.The amount of mercury released to the air,water and soil are 599t(447-955t),129t(85-289t),64t(46-104t)respectively.There is 129t(126-133t)mercury transferred abroad,446t(216-508t)handled,1,263t(807-2,262t)stored.This study indentified eight new mercury emission sources which release 92 t atmospheric mercury,taking up 15% of total atmosphericmercury emission.Cement production,mercury recycling and smelting,residential rubbish combustion are three “merucry sink” sectors which play important role in mercury transfer across different sectors.Under the maximal reduction scenario,in 2030,the inputted mercury is 1,573 t which all come from minerals with mercury impurities.The amount of mercury released to the air,water and soil are 267 t,61t and 25 t.The key measures contributing to mercury reduction are substitution of mercury containing products,improving the mercury recycling ability andupdating the air pollution controlling devices and advanced smelting technologies.The substitution of mercury containing products can reduce 604 t Hg input by 2030 than that of 2010,while improving the mercury recycling ability can reduce 180 t mineral mercury demand.Comparing with the release of 2010,by 2030,332t? 68 t and 39 t mercury released to the air,water and soil can be reduced though increasing the application rate of coal washing in coal combustion sectors to 70–80%;updating the air pollution controlling devices,expanding the application rate of specific mercury removal devices in coal-fired power plants,zinc smelting and cement production to 50%,42% and 50%,sulfide precipitation applied in lead and zinc smelting sectors into 50%,60% and 90%;expediting the application rate of rich-oxygen pool lead smelting process and electrolytic zinc smelting process to one hundred percent.