Emissions of air toxics from coal-fired boilers: Arsenic
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.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 10180709
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/ESD/TM-71; ON: DE94018576
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Aug 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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ARSENIC
EMISSION
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
FLUE GAS
CLEANING
DEMETALLIZATION
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540120
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