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Minimization of Hg and trace elements during coal combustion and gasification processes 73

(HAPs). However, like many other countries, the United States has legislation for SO 2
and NO x , which should provide cobenefit mercury and other TE reduction. In the
United States as a whole, SO 2 and NO x emissions from utilities have both dropped
by around 70% since 1990. Mercury emissions are estimated to have dropped by
around 50% in this time, despite the increase in electricity consumption of over
38% between 1990 and 2000 (Kinsman, 2011). The current applicable law, which
is called Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), applies emission standards for
utility boilers set to achieve emission reductions that are at least as great as the emis-
sion reductions achieved by the average of the top 12% best controlled sources for the
relevant source categories. This rule concentrates on several air toxics: mercury; acid
gases (HCl surrogate for all acid gases, with an alternate surrogate of SO 2 ); nonmer-
cury metallic toxic pollutants (such as arsenic, chromium, and nickel), with either
individual metals, total metals, or filterable particulate matter (as a surrogate); and
organic air toxics (including dioxins) (US EPA, 2012).

3.4.3 European pollutant release and transfer register

The success of these laws and the development of future legislation rely on accurate
data for current emissions along with estimates for future emissions under alternative
scenarios. Accurate emission inventories are pivotal to the success of any emission
reduction strategy. In simple terms, emission inventories are lists of the amounts of
pollutants emitted from different sectors or sources (Sloss, 2009).
The European pollutant release and transfer register (E-PRTR) is the Europe-wide
register that provides easily accessible key environmental data from industrial facilities
in EU member states and in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Serbia, and Switzerland.
It replaced and improved on the previous European Pollutant Emission Register. The
new register contains data reported annually by more than 30,000 industrial facilities
covering 65 economic activities across Europe. For each facility, information is pro-
vided concerning the amounts of pollutant releases to air, water, and land, as well
as off-site transfers of waste and pollutants in wastewater from a list of 91 key pollut-
ants, including heavy metals, pesticides, greenhouse gases, and dioxins for years 2007
onward. Some information on releases from diffuse sources is also available and will
be gradually enhanced (http://prtr.ec.europa.eu). Data are reported by individual facil-
ities to the relevant competent authorities on an annual basis. The respective authorities
in the countries compile and check the quality of the reported data. The data are then
provided to the EC and the European Environment Agency for compilation and
dissemination on this E-PRTR Website.
In accordance with the LCP Directive, LCPs are energy producers (e.g., heat, elec-
tricity, district heating) whose rated thermal input is equal to or greater than 50 mega-
watts. These energy producers play an important role in Europe’s environment, as they
are one of the key contributors to TE emissions to air. The last data available corre-
spond to 2015 emissions. Fig. 3.7 shows as an example arsenic and mercury emissions
to air. Emissions of As mainly derive from fuel combustion (68%). Cd is emitted from
iron and steel production (46.3%) and stationary fossil fuel combustion (22%). Ni is
emitted from fuel oil (24.2%) and coal combustion (46.4%). Pb is mainly emitted