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EVALUATION OF EMISSIONS FROM THE OPEN BURNING OF LAND-CLEARING DEBRIS
Citation:
Lutes, C. AND P. Kariher. EVALUATION OF EMISSIONS FROM THE OPEN BURNING OF LAND-CLEARING DEBRIS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/R-96/128 (NTIS PB97-115356), 1996.
Impact/Purpose:
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Description:
The report identifies and quantifies a broad range of pollutants that are discharged during small-scale, simulated, open combustion of land-clearing debris and reports these emissions relative to the mass of material combusted. Two types of land-clearing debris (representing the typical land-clearing debris found in Florida and Tennessee; primarily wood and other organic debris) were combusted in a facility designed to simulate open burning. One debris sample was also combusted in the same facility using a simulated air curtain incinerator. Volatile, semivolatile, and particulate-bound organics were collected and analyzed by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The emphasis of analyses was on the quantification of hazardous air pollutants listed in Title III of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, although further efforts were made to identify and quantify other major organic components. Fixed combustion gases (carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, oxygen, and total hydrocarbons) were monitored continuously throughout the test period. The project produced estimated emissions data for a broad range of atmospheric pollutants from a simulated open debris combustion process. Tests did not provide conclusive evidence of the effectiveness of air curtain combustors in reducing emissions: some emissions decreased, others were unchanged, still others seemed to increase.