Removal of Particulates from Emissions of Joss Paper Furnaces

Abstract

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.

Removal of Odor-Causing Substances by a Pilot-Scale Oxidative-Reductive Scrubbing Tower System

“…However, several issues are associated with the uses of these technologies for kitchen waste treatment. For example, the unpleasant odors and undesired byproduct formation from combustion and leakage of leachates by landfill possibly due to the high moisture and salt contents in kitchen wastes may limit the applications and efficiencies of these technologies for kitchen waste treatment (Allen et al, 1997;Zou et al, 2003;Popat and Deshusses, 2008;Chomanee et al, 2009;Ning and Sioutas, 2010;Bari et al, 2011;Lo et al, 2011). In addition to incineration and landfill, composting, swine feeding, and bioenergy recycle are the three major technologies used for the recycled kitchen wastes, with public interest in composting has been on the increase in these years (Dimambro et al, 2007;Boldrin et al, 2009;Hecht and Griehl, 2009;Zhang et al, 2010;Latif et al, 2011).…”

“…Common technologies to control the emission of hazardous and/or odor-causing air pollutants include combustion (Guffey and Bland 2004;O'Dowd et al, 2004;Ye et al, 2012) and non-combustion technologies such as chemical reaction and purification, as well as those specifically designed to limit the release of odor-causing compounds in the gases (Hsieh et al, 2011;Latif et al, 2011;Lo et al, 2011;Perng et al, 2011). Of the technologies for odor control, chemical wet scrubber (Gaur et al, 2010;Panza and Belgiorno, 2010) and biological treatment including biofiltration and biotrickling filters were widely investigated and used (Melse and Van der Werf 2005;Popat and Deshusses, 2008;Chou and Li, 2010;Lopez et al, 2011).…”

A Novel Two-Stage Scrubbing Technology for Odor Control of Kitchen Waste Composting

“…Common control technologies include combustion (Ye et al, 2012) and non-combustion technologies mostly using chemical reaction and purification to treat air pollutants (Hsieh et al, 2011;Latif et al, 2011;Lo et al, 2011;Perng et al, 2011). As odorous compounds being the target pollutants for air treatment, absorption/adsorption scrubbing (Gaur et al, 2010;Panza and Belgiorno, 2010) and biological treatment including biofiltration and biotrickling filters (Melse and Van der Werf, 2005;Popat and Deshusses, 2008;Chou and Li, 2010) were widely used.…”

Reducing Air Pollution Emissions from Burning Incense with the Addition of Calcium Carbonate

“…The burning of solid biomaterial such as incense, joss paper, tobacco, and wood has been demonstrated to significantly generate particulate matter (PM) (Fang et al, 2003;Choosong et al, 2010;Ning and Sioutas, 2010), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (Yang et al, 2007;Lo et al, 2011), and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin/dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) (Wu et al, 2010;Chiu et al, 2011;Lin et al, 2011).…”