Page 248 - Air pollution and greenhouse gases from basic concepts to engineering applications for air emission control

224 7 Combustion Process and Air Emission Formation

The major source for CO 2 emission is the combustion of hydrocarbon fossil fuel.
CO 2 concentrations in flue gases from natural gas-fired combined cycle power plants
are about 4 % by volume, however it increases to 9–14 % from coal fired boilers.
These amounts of CO 2 are currently emitted to the atmosphere without control.
Overall, the fossil-fuel combustion produces a variety of air pollutants in a great
quantity. A typical 1,000-MW coal-fired power plant can produce about hundreds
of thousand tons per year of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, as well as compa-
rable quantities of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, volatile compounds, and trace
metals. These air emissions have to be reduced as much as possible to protect public
health and the environment. They are achieved by pre-, in- and post-combustion
control approaches. They are covered in the following chapters.

References and Further Readings

1. ASTM International standard (MNL 11271 M, Proximate Analysis). doi:10.1520/
MNL11271M
2. ASTM International Standard (MNL11272M, Ultimate Analysis). doi:10.1520/MNL11272M
3. Blevins LG, Renfro MW, Lyle KH, Laurendeau HM, Gore JP (1999) Experimental study of
temperature and CH radical location in partially premixed CH 4 /air coflow flames. Combust
Flame 118:684–696
4. Bockhorn H (1994) Soot formation in combustion. Springer, Berlin
5. Bockhorn H, Schafer T (1994) Growth of soot particles in premixed flames by surface
reactions. In: Bockhorn H (ed) Soot formation in combustion. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg
6. Brown TD, Smith DN, Hargis RA Jr, O’Dowd WJ (1999) Mercury measurement and its
control: what we know, have learned and need to further investigate. J Air Waste Manag
Assoc 49(12):1469–1473
7. Buhre B, Elliott L, Sheng CD, Gupta RP, Wall TF (2005) Oxy-fuel combustion technology for
coal-fired power generation. Prog Energy Combust Sci 31:283–307
8. Cooper CD, Alley FC (2002) Air Pollution control—a design approach, 3rd edn. Waveland
Press, Illinois
9. Damle AS, Ensor DS, Ranade MB (1981) Coal combustion aerosol formation mechanisms: a
review. Aerosol Sci Technol 1(1):119–133
10. Dryer FL (1972) High temperature oxidation of carbon monoxide and methane in a turbulent
flow reactor. AMS report T-1034. March 1972
11. D’Anna A, D’Alessio A, Minutulo P (1994) Spectroscopic and chemical characterization of
soot inception processes in premixed laminar flames at atmospheric pressure. In: Bockhorn H
(ed) Soot formation in combustion. Springer, Berlin
12. Fenimore CP (1971) Formation of nitric oxide in premixed hydrocarbon flames. In: 13th
symposium (international) on combustion. The Combustion Institute, Pittsburgh, p 373
13. Flagan RC, Seinfeld JH (2012) Fundamentals of air pollution engineering. Prentice Hall,
Englewood Cliffs
14. Fletcher TH (1985) Sensitivity of combustion calculations to devolatilization rate.
Expressions. In: Presentation at the American Flame Research Committee, 1985 Fall
Meeting, October 17–18, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California, USA
15. Frenklach M, Ebert LB (1988) Comment on the proposed role of spheroidal carbon clusters in
soot formation. J Phys Chem 92:561
16. GEO (2000) Global Environment Outlook. Available at http://www.grid.unep.ch/geo