Monitoring and Identification of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins and Dibenzofurans in the Ambient Central Taiwan

In recent years, burning joss paper in temple furnaces has been noticed to be a significant cause for particulate emissions in Asia, especially in Taiwan. This study investigates feasible options of air pollution control devices (APCD) for joss paper furnaces in temples, and used a 40 kg/hr joss paper furnace for testing. This paper examined particulate removal efficiencies of two options: a bag house (capacity 30 m 3 /min at 108°C) and a wet scrubber (capacity 40 m 3 /min at 150°C). The results indicate that particulate matters (PM) in the diluted flue gas at the bag-house inlet were 76.6 ± 32.7 mg/Nm 3 (average ± standard deviation), and those at the outlet of the bag-house could be reduced to as low as 0.55 ± 1.28 mg/Nm 3 . An average PM removal efficiency of 99.3% could be obtained with a filtration speed of approximately 2.0 m/min evaluated at 108°C. The wet scrubber removed approximately 70% of PM, with scrubbing intensities higher than 4.0 L/m 2 .s across the scrubber cross-section. For the duration of the experiment, no visual white smoke (water mist) was observed at the exit of the wet scrubber with a combustion rate of 16 kg/hr of joss paper, and the scrubbing water temperature was automatically sustained at lower than 61°C. The study concluded that both bag filtration and wet scrubbing are suitable techniques to control particulate emission from joss paper furnaces in Taiwanese temples. The bag filtration technique, while achieving higher efficiencies than the wet scrubbing technique, requires more space and cost. Examinations of bottom and fly ashes of combusted joss paper with XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) revealed the presence of calcium oxide in the fly ash, while certain metals were found in the bottom ash.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Removal of Particulates from Emissions of Joss Paper Furnaces

Wang

Lee

et al. 2011

“…For comparison, our previous study (Chang et al, 2003) also indicated that the atmospheric PCDD/F concentrations measured in the vicinity of municipal waste incinerators in northern Taiwan ranged from 56.0 to 348 fg I-TEQ/m 3 . Other relevant studies (Hsieh et al, 2009;Wu et al, 2010b) have also indicated that atmospheric PCDD/F concentrations measured in industrial parks in central and southern Taiwan range from 33.9 to 72.7 fg I-TEQ/m 3 and 19.0 to 165 fg I-TEQ/m 3 , respectively. In other Asian countries such as Korea and Japan, the atmospheric PCDD/F concentrations in urban areas have been shown to range from 28 to 120 fg I-TEQ/m 3 (Makiya, 1999;Lee et al, 2007), which are similar to another of our previous studies (Chi et al, 2008a) where we measured atmospheric PCDD/F concentrations in an urban area of Taiwan to be in the range 20 to 110 fg I-TEQ/m 3 .…”

Section: Variation In Ambient Pcdd/f Concentrations In Northern Taiwamentioning

confidence: 99%

Increase of Ambient PCDD/F Concentrations in Northern Taiwan during Asian Dust Storm and Winter Monsoon Episodes

Hsien¹,

Chou

Peng

et al. 2014

In the spring, Asian dust storms that originate in the deserts of Mongolia and China eventually reach the populated areas of East Asia. The dust storm particles usually contain diverse organic matter and nutrients that may have an adverse effect on human health. In winter, northeast monsoon episodes that originate in the mainland China not only bring cold air but also transport dust and air pollutants to Taiwan over long distances. Based on the above, the presence of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), including polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), in the suspended particles undergoing long-range transport needs to be investigated. In this study, the atmospheric concentrations of PCDD/Fs were monitored and investigated during an Asian dust storm episode and northeast monsoon episode in northern Taiwan. The sampling results indicate that the atmospheric PCDD/Fs observed at two remote sampling sites ranged from 7.46 ± 0.7 to 37. rd December 2008, respectively. Specifically, higher levels of PCDFs (by 70%-76%) were measured in northern Taiwan during these long-range transport periods. As no specific dioxin emission sources exist within 20 km of our sampling sites, the increase in PCDD/F concentrations observed at these two remote sampling sites is likely to be related to the Asian dust storm and northeast monsoon episodes and the pollutants would seem to have come from mainland China.

“…PCDD/Fs were first found in the fly ash of a municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) (Olie et al, 1977). Since then, attention has been paid on many other emissions sources by environmental science researchers (Wang et al, 2003;Lee et al, 2004;Kao et al, 2006;Hu et al, 2009;Lin et al, 2010b;Chuang et al, 2010aChuang et al, , 2010bWang et al, 2010aWang et al, , 2010bWu et al, 2010;Yu et al, 2010;Chiu et al, 2011; * Correspondence author. Tel: +886-6-2353535 ext.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification the Content of the Windbox Dust Related to the Formation of PCDD/Fs during the Iron Ore Sintering Process

Kuo

Chen

Yang³

et al. 2011

This study measured the contents of the ionic and elemental constituents, and the chemical compounds containing in windbox (WB) dusts collected from a commercial iron ore sintering plant, then the results were used to identify possible PCDD/Fs formation pathways in the WB. We found that the abundance in both KCl and NaCl may provide a suitable condition for de novo synthesis of PCDD/Fs in the WB. Al, Fe, K, Ca, and Pb were the top five contents in WB16 dusts, but the co-existence of the above five metal contents warrants the need for further investigation on their roles in PCDD/F formation processes in the future. Although a low concentration of Cu was detected, it might be of importance to PCDD/Fs formation inside the WB. A total of 29 chemical compounds were identified. Among them, several oxygenated organic compound might be associated with PCDD/F formations at the beginning stage, but the roles of aromatic oxygenates on the formation of PCDD/Fs required further investigation. Finally, possible de novo synthesis pathways of PCDD/Fs were proposed based on the above findings. However, the above pathways are required further laboratory studies for validation before possible formation suppression approaches can be determined.