PARTICULATE AND BLACK SMOKE EMISSIONS FROM PALM OIL MILL BOILERS IN SARAWAK, MALAYSIA

摘要

The aim of this study is to assess the status of particulate and black smoke emission compliance to Department of Environment (DOE), Malaysia standard of palm oil mill boilers in Sarawak, Malaysia. The specific objectives are to analyze boiler operating parameters and management aspect, which affect the level of emissions from the boiler exhaust. Data from 26 palm oil mills with 44 stacks between 1999 and 2003 were used for the analysis. There are two methods used in the data collection and analysis Ringelmann chart and data surveying. Anova (analysis of variance) showed that out of 26 palm oil mills selected for the study, the range of particular emission emitted by these mills was 0.26 to 2.33 gm/Nm~3. The particulate emission from 18 of mills with 34 boiler (77%) has exceeded the permissible limit of 0.4gm/Nm~3 as stated clearly under Environmental Quality (Clean air) Regulations 1978 by the Department of Environment (DOE), Malaysia with average particulate emission of 0.76 mg/Nm~3. Whereas for black smoke compliance, the range of black smoke emission level was 2.74% and 71.0% and 32 out of 46 boilers (73.0%) were also failed to comply with DOE's limit of not more than 40% or shade no.2 on Ringelmann chart. The study using t-test indicated that as the number of black smoke increases, the level of particulate emission was also increased. The result from multiple regression analysis also showed that continuous variables of boiler operating parameters such as age of boiler, boiler load (fuel consumption) and operating hours have significant effect on the level of particulate emissions. It should be a proper control of the boiler operating parameters, the level of particulate and black smoke emission from boiler's chimney will be able to achieve within an acceptable level which imposed by DOE.