A study of PAH emissions from an AFBC system
- Western Kentucky Univ., Bowling Green, KY (United States)
Emissions from combustion processes that are harmful to the environment may include particulates in the form of dust and smoke, as well as sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides. In addition to these, there is a growing concern about emissions of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds (VOC), and in particular, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The major portion of PAHs emissions come from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, and as a consequence of the pyrolytic process that precedes combustion. Concerning the emissions of PAHs, some of these compounds are known carcinogens. One of the major issues challenging environmental management and pollution control at present is the disposal of the tremendous amount of municipal solid waste (MSW). In the evaluation of technologies needed to reduce the volume of MSW sent to landfills, one finds that atmospheric fluidized bed combustion (AFBC) technology is particularly suited for burning waste fuels due to its ability to burn low rank fuels with high efficiencies and to capture sulfur oxides by sorbents. Combustion of coal and MSW may produce toxic products in the flue gas. In this study, the effects of combustion temperature, type of coal, sulfur and chlorine contents, and oxygen were studied using a 0.1 MW (0.3 m) bench-scale fluidized bed combustion system (FBC) at WKU and a laboratory-size FBC system made of stainless steel with an electrically heated furnace and continuous coal feeding. The results indicate that the emission of PAHs from the AFBC system was related to the carbon content in the fly ash. The chloride content of the fuel has a slight effect on the formation of PAHs. The total amount of PAHs formed in the bed ash was around 100 {micro}g/g under these experimental conditions.
- OSTI ID:
- 349175
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980985-; ISBN 1-890977-15-2; TRN: IM9924%%175
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 15. annual international Pittsburgh coal conference, Pittsburgh, PA (United States), 14-18 Sep 1998; Other Information: PBD: 1998; Related Information: Is Part Of Fifteenth annual international Pittsburgh coal conference: Proceedings; PB: [1500] p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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