The adsorption/desorption characteristics of mercury on various sorbents at elevated temperatures were experimentally investigated in 25.4mm (1 ") ID fixed bed absorber. The mercury compounds involved were mercury chloride and elemental mercury, and the sorbents tested included bauxite, zeolite, lime, alumina and activated carbon. Experimental parameters were air flow rate, vaporization temperature, sorbent bed temperature, sorbent bed height, and sulfur impregnation. The Toxicity Characteristics Leaching Procedure (TCLP) tests were also performed to evaluate the leachability of the retained mercury. The results indicated that different sorbents have different mercury sorption capacity. Bauxite and activated carbon were found to be more effective than other tested sorbents for mercury retention. Besides experimental investigations, potential mercury reactions during the experiments were identified through equilibrium simulations and a model based on the mass transfer control mechanism was proposed to simulate the mercury sorption process. The proposed sorption model appeared to describe reasonably well the experimental results.