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FIELD STUDY TO OBTAIN TRACE ELEMENT MASS BALANCES AT A COAL-FIRED UTILITY BOILER
Citation:
Evers, R., V. Banderfriff, AND R. Zielke. FIELD STUDY TO OBTAIN TRACE ELEMENT MASS BALANCES AT A COAL-FIRED UTILITY BOILER. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/7-80/171.
Description:
The report gives results of a study to identify mass flow rates of minor and trace elements from streams of a coal-fired utility boiler (Colbert Steam Plant Unit No. 1). This information was used to obtain a mass balance for 25 elements. The mass balances used inlet and outlet flows associated with three major pieces of equipment: the pulverizer, boiler, and electrostatic precipitator. This provided a mass balance for each element for the various parts of the system. Along with the trace elements which were being measured, organic samples were obtained and analyzed from various streams for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polynuclear organic matter (POMs). Thus, the mass balance reflected a fairly complete picture of the boiler under normal operating conditions. The mass balances show that sampling techniques need to be improved. First, the analysis of the vapor-phase samples reported all concentrations below the detection limit for each element. Second, the mass balances of only 10 elements (representing 61% of the total ash flow) closed within + or - 10% for at least two of the three major pieces of the system.