BACKGROUND: Release of mercury from fluorescent lamps must be minimized to avoid its hazardous effects on human beings and other living organisms. Because of this, increasing attention is given to the improvement of existing techniques for its recovery as well as the development of new ones. This paper describes the application of heterogeneous photocatalysis for the selective reduction of mercury from fluorescent lamps. The whole process involves mercury chemical extraction using aqueous solutions of sodium hypochlorite. After pH adjustment of the resulting aqueous solution, the photocatalytic reduction of mercury is performed in the presence of titanium dioxide and citric acid as an auxiliary organic agent.