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Coal-Fired Power Plants (CFPPs)
 What are the major sources of mercury in the world and in the United States?

Natural sources of mercury, such as volcanoes and ocean emissions, are believed to contribute a third of worldwide mercury air emissions, while man-made contributions make up the other two thirds.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United States human-caused mercury emissions account for only about three percent of the global total, and power plant emissions account for only one percent of the total global mercury output (United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Chemicals, Global Mercury Assessment, Geneva, 2002.).

Some estimates place global mercury emissions between 4,400 and 7,500 metric tons from natural and human-caused sources. Keeping in mind that all estimates have a degree of uncertainty, the following pie chart and world map provides a visual idea of this estimate.

   
 
   
  Pie chart showing that of total annual mercury emissions, about a third is generated by natural sources, a third is human-caused direct emissions, and a third is human-caused re-emitted emissions.
 

Pie chart showing that 53% of mercury emissions originate in Asia; 18% originate in Africa; 11% originate in Europe; 9% originate in north America; 6% originate in Australia; and 4% originate in South America.
Source: Presentation by J. Pacyna and J. Munthe at mercury workshop in Brussels, March 29-30, 2004


World map showing distribution of emissions of mercury. Highest concentrations (5 to 22 metric tonnes per year) are shown on the east and west coasts of the United States, in southern Africa, in eastern Europe, and throughout China and Japan.
Source: United Nations Environment Program Global Mercury Assessment, 2002,
using J. Pacyna 1995 data, as presented by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program


   
  Mercury Emissions - By Source
 
*Source – Mercury Emission Control R&D
(www.fossil.energy.gov)

Improved Usage and Awareness
Because of federal bans on mercury additives in paints and pesticides, reduced mercury use in batteries, and improved battery recycling, the U.S. industrial demand for mercury has dropped 75 percent since 1988. Based on the most recent data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), one of the principal sources of human-caused mercury emissions in the United States is coal-fired power plants.* However, they are not the only source of human caused mercury emissions in the U.S. The chart below, although using 1995 data, shows some other industries that emit mercury through their processes.
 
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