Abstract
Several tests were conducted in July 2002 on an instrument developed by researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for in-situ, real-time measurement of metal-laden aerosol particles in flue gas from combustion facilities. Stock aqueous solutions of prepared metal concentrations were nebulized and injected into the flue gas to provide spikes for the instrument testing. Strengths of the solutions were designed such that a reference method (RM) was able to obtain a sufficient amount of material on filter samples in 30 min cycles; the collected filters were subsequently analyzed in an analytical laboratory using certified methods. Parallel aerosol measurements were performed by one operator using the ORNL instrument. The recorded signal of an individual element was analyzed using the Lorentzian model and the concentration calculated from a calibration curve that was established prior to the experiments. RM data were able to reflect the loads simulated in the spiked waste stream. However, data collected using the RM was unable to reflect the transient load condition in the flue gas and missed a sample containing beryllium. The possibility of bias in the RM determination of chromium could exist. With the real-time detection capability, the instrument was able to reveal the transient emission variation by making seven consecutive measurements within a 30 min cycle. The measurements for mercury by both techniques appeared to be in good agreement. Further improvement of the system includes the development of user-friendly software for modeling, data analysis tools, and packaging suitable for field transportation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 127-137 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Talanta |
Volume | 61 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 17 2003 |
Funding
The Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program of the US Department of Defense provided the initial funding for the development of the ABFLIPS instrument concept and design. The US Department of Energy Fossil Energy Office of Natural Gas and Oil Technology Program and the Department of Defense Environmental Security Technology Certification Program are acknowledged for providing partial funding for this research and for the field tests. The support from the Eastman Chemical Company waste incinerator facility and Environmental Services Laboratory, especially support from Ryan Vannice, Frank Fillers, Tim Hensley, Mark Ragan, and Melissa Wise are highly appreciated. Richard Strang and Janet Evans, both of the Environmental Affairs, and Brent Bacon, of the Waste Disposal Services of the Eastman Chemical Company provided excellent coordination and support. Without the dedicated personnel and generous in-kind support from the Eastman Chemical Company involved in this research, the author would have been unable to successfully complete the experiments as planned and scheduled. Melanie Mayes of ORNL's Environmental Sciences Division (ESD) assisted in the ICP-MS analysis of stock solutions. Mary Anna Bogle of ESD assisted in cold vapor atomic absorption analysis of Hg stock solutions. Comments of Gary Jacobs and Tom Early, also of ORNL/ESD, are acknowledged. Valuable comments from anonymous reviewers are acknowledged for improving the quality of the manuscript. ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the US Department of Energy under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725.
Keywords
- Aerosol measurements
- Lorentzian model
- Metal-laden aerosol