Elemental Composition of Atmospheric Fine-Particles Emitted from Coal Burned in a Modern Electric Power Plant Equipped with a Flue-Gas Desulfurization System

摘要

Improved control devices now frequently installed on conventional coal-utility boilers drastically affect the quantity, chemical composition, and physical characteristics of fine-particles emitted to the atmosphere from these sources. Fly-ash aerosols were sampled upstream and downstream from a modern lime-slurry, spray-tower system installed on a 430-Mw(e) coal utility boiler. Particulate samples were collected in situ on membrane filters and in University of Washington MKIII and MKV cascade impactors. The MKV impactor, operated at reduced pressure and with a cyclone preseparator, provided 13 discrete particle-size fractions with median diameters ranging from 0.07 to 20 mu m; with up to 6 of the fractions in the highly respirable submicron particle range. The concentrations of up to 35 elements and estimates of the size distributions of particles in each of the fly-ash fractions were determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis and by electron microscopy, respectively. Mechanisms of fine-particle formation and chemical enrichment in the flue-gas desulfurization system are discussed. (ERA citation 06:033762)