This material could remove mercury from exhaust streams of coal-burning power plants.

Pellets made of a high-surface-area composite of silica and titania have shown promise as means of removing elemental mercury from flue gases. With further technical development and commercialization, this material could become economically attractive as a more-effective, less-expensive alternative to activated carbons for removing mercury from exhaust streams of coal-burning power plants, which are the sources of more than 90 percent of all anthropogenic airborne mercury.