Analytical methods for the determination of mercury species in natural gas condensate

Natural gas condensate, a by-product in natural gas exploitation and utilization, is an excellent raw material for naphtha production. However, the natural gas condensate always contains a trace amount of mercury, which may damage the human health and corrode the downstream processing units such as heat exchangers. It is highly demanded that the mercury in natural gas condensate can be identified specifically and analyzed accurately and quickly, which remains a big challenge in natural gas processing industry up to now. This paper reviewed the analytical methods for the determination of mercury species in natural gas condensate, by evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of various measures in terms of mercury extraction and detection in natural gas condensate. It was observed that the gas chromatography-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer with high accuracy and high mercury recovery rate is the best technique at present to determine the mercury species in the natural gas condensate. The state of mercury species and content of mercury are two key factors to govern the selection and optimization of the adsorbent and the process for the efficient removal of mercury in natural gas condensate in different scales, which exacts a novel technique for the fast yet accurate characterization of various mercury species to meet the demands in the natural gas industry.