This past weekend I was vaunting biodiesel and the in roads made over the past couple years and it came up that wood/wood chips contains a certain amount of mercury and that this mercury would not easily wash out.
Question one is : is this true?
Question 2 is: would a methanol flush be enough to get it out if in fact there is any ?
Last question is: woukld flowing through wood chips followed by resin beds (lead/lag) get it out - if in fact there is any ?
Any responses are appreciated.

quote:

Natural mercury levels in plants range from 0.001 to 0.1 ppm (dry weight). In forest ecosystems, this increases to 0.01 to 0.3 ppm, while crops grown in soils containing less than 0.04 ppm Hg vary from 0.004 to 0.09 ppm. http://www.mining.ubc.ca/files.../JMeech/fire4nat.htm

Low levels of mercury appear to be in a variety of substances.

I'm seeing different units.

PPM (Parts per million)
PPB (Parts per billion)
milligrams / gram = Parts per thousand
micrograms / gram = Parts per million
nanograms / gram = Parts per billion
picograms / gram = Parts per trillion

Ok.
If there is mercury in wood.
Then burning wood in a fireplace would release some mercury into the atmosphere.

Also, I'd bet there would be measurable mercury in Soy and Canola (Rape) seeds. And, a portion of it would be transfered into the oils including cooking oil.

The 1992 (current) standard for Mercury in Drinking Water is 2 parts per billion.

I'm finding varying reports of mercury in Crude, #2 Diesel, and Fuel Oils.

One document (abstract) lists:
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=14980298
41.7 picograms/gram (parts per trillion), or 0.0417 parts per billion
129 picograms / gram (parts per trillion), or 0.129 parts per billion
34 picograms / gram
and 3.5 nanograms/gram (parts per billion)


Another document is listing numbers for coal, but I can't see it for Crude or Diesel.
http://docs.google.com/gview?a...3914.pdf&hl=en&gl=us
133 ng/g, 38 ng/g, 146 ng/g

These are actually higher than the values John had cited in wood.

You could get your oil tested, but it is probably not a big deal.

Would an activated carbon filter help, or would it be ineffective in an oil/bd bath?

If you send in ASTM tests, ask for Mercury to be tested, and please post the results.

Thanks for the info gentlemen. Now I need to go do some thinking (this might take a while...)

This sounds along the same lines as NORM: Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material. I heard about it through the oil and gas industry. I'm only marginally involved in the oil patch but from what I can remember (when told about NORM over 20 years ago), trace amounts of radioactive material are found in the dirt and it can result in the drilling residues being mildly radioactive. I know they track it to make sure it doesn't get too "hot" but it's part of nature.

Were you being challenged as to whether or not we're stripping out the mercury in the wood and potentially in our fuel? If so, I'd say this person was pretty much a naysayer and would be against just about anything and everything. Ah... people who enjoy pontificating in order to stroke their own ego more than to contribute to anything good.

Just ask them what they are doing to combat their own routine release of DHMO, a known component of acid rain. By the way, DHMO (di hydrogen monoxide) is... water.

I once had a MSDS for industrial baking soda. There was a note that for use in California they must list arsenic as a trace component. Yes, arsenic in baking soda. Factual information, yes. Significantly important information... you be the judge.

Yes, I was thinking a bit about a comparison with background radiation which is pretty much ubiquitous in our world, although measurably greater now than 100 years ago.

But, consider C14 dating of organic remains. Radioactive Carbon being present in all life. I'd hate to think of the ramifications of burning carbon 14 in your car.

If you are only concerned with leaching mercury from wood chips (we aren't certain that even occurs). But, also consider this.

If your wood chips have a max concentration of about 100 to 300 parts per billion.

Assume 100% of it leaches out.

Also, assume you filter 1000 gallons of VO using a 1 gallon solid chunk of wood.

You now have jumped from 100 to 300 parts per billion down to 100 to 300 parts per trillion.

This doesn't mean that you aren't still dealing with the same amount of mercury that was in a couple of chunks of firewood.

Other sources of Mercury:
Amalgam fillings in your teeth, as much as 50% Mercury.
Mercury used to be used in vaccines as a component of the preservative.
Also used in a number of old thermometers and thermostats, but generally sealed unless broken.

It looks like there are higher concentrations of mercury in some of the fish we eat than there is in wood.

Mercury Levels in Commercial Fish and Shellfish

Ken

I think I am tilting towards what Todd said, and that it is moree scare tactic that actual potential trouble. After all there is also potash (KOH) present in nature as soon as there is rain following a hard wood forest fire. There is also methane present all the time in rotting vegetation as well as wood alcohol (metanol) in underbrush fermentation, but none so much so that it should be cause for alarm.
I appreciate the comebacks, food for thought.