Research & Development

In an effort to mitigate risks associated with production and processing of hydrocarbons impacted with mercury, PEI has established a research and development program focused on mercury sampling and analysis technology and chemical decontamination solutions.

As part of our ongoing research and development program, PEI has performed tests on mercury contaminated steel coupons in our specially designed test chambers, which allows us to measure the effectiveness of various decontamination solutions. Various parameters like pH, conductivity, temperature, flow-rate, Reynolds number, and other chemical parameters are measured constantly.

We have the ability to heat the systems to simulate operating temperatures and pressures to measure baseline and post chemical cleaning mercury in-gas phase concentrations using both CVAF and CVAA Spectrometry. Subsequent sequential digestions of the test coupons allow us to determine penetration depths and effectiveness of various chemical cleaning solutions. Continuing research like this and field trials have led to the development of two very effective chemistries for mercury decontamination.