Paper Title
Analysis Of Mercury Content In River Water At Palakkad District And The Design Of Mercury Adsorbing CFL Disposal System

Abstract
Analysis of mercury content has been conducted by taking samples from tributaries and sub tributaries of Bharathapuzha river at Palakkad district. The samples were taken from subsurface and bottom sediment. The analysis was conducted at Sophisticated Test and Instrumentation Centre lab at Ernakulam. The instrument used for the analysis was Hydra C direct mercury analyzer which works on the principle of thermal decomposition with Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. The analysis results showed that there is no presence of elemental mercury in all the subsurface samples. But in the analysis of two sediment samples it was found that the elemental mercury was 0.02mg/l. When mercury reacts with water methylation of mercury will occur, thus forming methyl mercury, which is the main cause of the Minamata disease. CFLs play an important role in the contamination of river, as it contains 3-5 mg of mercury per CFL.As a solution for the contamination of rivers through mercury from CFLs a mercury adsorbing CFL disposal system was designed, in which the mercury in the CFLs are converted into mercurous oxide by using a compound made up of titanium dioxide, sulphur and acetic acid. Chemical experiments were conducted with (1) Titanium dioxide (2) Titanium dioxide and Acetic acid (3) Titanium dioxide, Sulphur and Acetic acid. All the experiments were conducted under the presence of sunlight, as the titanium dioxide is a photocatalyst. Results showed that the compound made up of Titanium dioxide, Sulphur and Acetic acid reacts faster with the mercury content in the CFL under the presence of UV light from the sun. The HgO formed is collected and the CFL glass can be given to glass factories for recycling. Index Terms—Hydra-C, Methyl Mercury, SEM, Titanium Dioxide.