Profiles of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls from the combustion of biomass pellets

Investigations on PAHs and trace elements in coal and its combustion residues from a power plant

“…PAHs are semi-volatile in atmospheric conditions, occur in the vapour phase usually, and as attached to the particles as well, depending on the vapour pressure of the individual PAH [101,102]. Low molecular weight PAHs, with 2 or 3 fused rings undergo volatilization with their predominant presence in vapour phase, whereas high molecular weight PAHs with more than 3 fused rings are primarily associated with particles, and are adsorbed on particulate matter [103]. Major reasons for enrichment of PAHs in the fly ash may be attributable to the combustor residence time and the surface area of the fly ash particles.…”

PAHs and potentially toxic elements in the fly ash and bed ash of biomass fired power plants

“…Boron (up to 42.2 mg/kg) was the most abundant element in the water soluble fraction followed by Ni (0.80-5.63 mg/kg). Vassilev et al [81] reported that the water-soluble elements leached from different biomass varieties include Al, As, Ba, Ca, Cl, Co, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, N, Na, P, Pb, S, Si, Sr, Ti, V and Zn [6]. In a similar study, Li et al [20] found that the leaching of the Cd, Cr, Pb, Ni, Mn, Cu, and Zn from biomass ash samples was larger than the USEPA regulatory limits.…”

“…In a wood pellet based boiler, N80% of the PAHs was emitted in the gas phase. PAHs in the gas phase comprised mainly of low molecular mass compounds, while PAHs in the particulate phase (ash) were mostly composed of high molecular mass compounds [6]. The total PAH content in a wood and straw based biomass ash varied in the range of 15-733 μg/kg [7].…”

Fate and Distribution of Polychlorinated Dibenzo-p-dioxins and Dibenzofurans in a Woodchip-fuelled Boiler

“…The woodchips in this study are collected from chipping or shredding wood for the productions of furniture with chlorine content smaller than 1 mg/kg, water content of 6.08%, ash content of 5.67%, combustible content of 88.3% and heat content of 4559 kcal/kg. They vary in size and moisture content, typically ranging from 25% to 55% (Atkin et al, 2010).…”

“…In addition, the bottom ashes generated from a complete combustion of wood can be mixed with the cement and/or via the vitrification processes to produce slag, which is environmental friendly (Li et al, 2003;Li et al, 2007a;Chen et al, 2009). Nevertheless, burning wood like most combustion also produce toxic pollutants, such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) (Preto et al, 2005;Tame et al, 2005;Shih and Lee, 2008), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) (Atkin et al, 2010), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) , PAHs and metals (Lavric et al, 2004;Choosong et al, 2010;Ruttanachot et al, 2011).…”