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Title: Emissions of air toxics from coal-fired boilers: Arsenic

Abstract

Concerns over emissions of hazardous air pollutants (air toxics) have emerged as a major environmental issue; the authority of the US Environmental Protection Agency to regulate such pollutants has been greatly expanded through passage of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Arsenic and arsenic compounds are of concern mainly because of their generally recognized toxicity. Arsenic is also regarded as one of the trace elements in coal subject to significant vaporization. This report summarizes and evaluates available published information on the arsenic content of coals mined in the United States, on arsenic emitted in coal combustion, and on the efficacy of various environmental control technologies for controlling airborne emissions. Bituminous and lignite coals have the highest mean arsenic concentrations, with subbituminous and anthracite coals having the lowest. However, all coal types show very significant variations in arsenic concentrations. Arsenic emissions from coal combustion are not well-characterized, particularly with regard to determination of specific arsenic compounds. Variations in emission, rates of more than an order of magnitude have been reported for some boiler types. Data on the capture of arsenic by environmental control technologies are available primarily for systems with cold electrostatic precipitators, where removals of approximately 50 to 98%more » have been reported. Limited data for wet flue-gas-desulfurization systems show widely varying removals of from 6 to 97%. On the other hand, waste incineration plants report removals in a narrow range of from 95 to 99%. This report briefly reviews several areas of research that may lead to improvements in arsenic control for existing flue-gas-cleanup technologies and summarizes the status of analytical techniques for measuring arsenic emissions from combustion sources.« less

Authors:
; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
OSTI Identifier:
10180709
Report Number(s):
ANL/ESD/TM-71
ON: DE94018576
DOE Contract Number:  
W-31109-ENG-38
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: Aug 1994
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS; COAL; COMBUSTION; ARSENIC; EMISSION; AIR POLLUTION CONTROL; FLUE GAS; CLEANING; DEMETALLIZATION; EXPERIMENTAL DATA; 010800; 540120; 200202; WASTE MANAGEMENT; CHEMICALS MONITORING AND TRANSPORT; NOXIOUS GAS AND PARTICULATE EMISSIONS

Citation Formats

Mendelsohn, M H, Huang, H S, and Livengood, C D. Emissions of air toxics from coal-fired boilers: Arsenic. United States: N. p., 1994. Web. doi:10.2172/10180709.
Mendelsohn, M H, Huang, H S, & Livengood, C D. Emissions of air toxics from coal-fired boilers: Arsenic. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/10180709
Mendelsohn, M H, Huang, H S, and Livengood, C D. 1994. "Emissions of air toxics from coal-fired boilers: Arsenic". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/10180709. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/10180709.
@article{osti_10180709,
title = {Emissions of air toxics from coal-fired boilers: Arsenic},
author = {Mendelsohn, M H and Huang, H S and Livengood, C D},
abstractNote = {Concerns over emissions of hazardous air pollutants (air toxics) have emerged as a major environmental issue; the authority of the US Environmental Protection Agency to regulate such pollutants has been greatly expanded through passage of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Arsenic and arsenic compounds are of concern mainly because of their generally recognized toxicity. Arsenic is also regarded as one of the trace elements in coal subject to significant vaporization. This report summarizes and evaluates available published information on the arsenic content of coals mined in the United States, on arsenic emitted in coal combustion, and on the efficacy of various environmental control technologies for controlling airborne emissions. Bituminous and lignite coals have the highest mean arsenic concentrations, with subbituminous and anthracite coals having the lowest. However, all coal types show very significant variations in arsenic concentrations. Arsenic emissions from coal combustion are not well-characterized, particularly with regard to determination of specific arsenic compounds. Variations in emission, rates of more than an order of magnitude have been reported for some boiler types. Data on the capture of arsenic by environmental control technologies are available primarily for systems with cold electrostatic precipitators, where removals of approximately 50 to 98% have been reported. Limited data for wet flue-gas-desulfurization systems show widely varying removals of from 6 to 97%. On the other hand, waste incineration plants report removals in a narrow range of from 95 to 99%. This report briefly reviews several areas of research that may lead to improvements in arsenic control for existing flue-gas-cleanup technologies and summarizes the status of analytical techniques for measuring arsenic emissions from combustion sources.},
doi = {10.2172/10180709},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/10180709}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1994},
month = {Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1994}
}