Mercury is a relatively noble metal. It and its compounds have high vapor pressures, some volatility, and solubility in many environments. With these characteristics, once introduced into a plant, mercury can and may wind up in some surprising places and do considerable damage to a wide variety of metals and alloys. (Table 1)
Mercury salts are readily reduced by local electrochemical action, and the resulting deposit of elemental mercury causes severe galvanic corrosion or stress cracking.
It has been detected in oil refinery streams, chlorine, chlorinated hydrocarbons, glycols, acetic acid, carbon dioxide, fertilizers and contaminated condensate return, and doubtless is present in many other materials.
Many of the troubles caused by mercury have been reviewed in a paper by Brown, Binger and Brown.1 Mercury instruments have been blamed as a source, but these have been largely phased out in recent years. There have been many cases where...
