NOx, FINE PARTICLE AND TOXIC METAL EMISSIONS FROM THE COMBUSTION OF SEWAGE SLUDGE/COAL MIXTURES: A SYSTEMATIC ASSESSMENT

This research project focuses on pollutants from the combustion of mixtures of dried municipal sewage sludge (MSS) and coal. The objective is to determine the relationship between (1) fraction sludge in the sludge/coal mixture, and (2) combustion conditions on (a) NOx concentrations in the exhaust, (b) the size segregated fine and ultra-fine particle composition in the exhaust, and (c) the partitioning of toxic metals between vapor and condenses phases, within the process. The proposed study will be conducted in concert with an existing ongoing research on toxic metal partitioning mechanisms for very well characterized pulverized coals alone. Both high NOx and low NOx combustion conditions will be investigated (unstaged and staged combustion). Tradeoffs between CO2 control, NOx control, and inorganic fine particle and toxic metal emissions will be determined. Previous research has yielded data on trace metal partitioning for MSS by itself, with natural gas assist, for coal plus MSS combustion together, and for coal alone. We have re-evaluated the inhalation health effects of ash aerosol from combustion of MSS both by itself and also together with coal. We have concluded that ash from the co-combustion of MSS and coal is very much worse from an inhalation health point of view, than ash from either MSS by itself or coal by itself. The reason is that ZnO is not the ''bad actor'' as had been suspected before, but the culprit is, rather, sulfated Zn. The MSS supplies the Zn and the coal supplies the sulfur, and so it is the combination of coal and MSS that makes that process environmentally bad. If MSS is to be burned, it should be burned without coal, in the absence of sulfur