Atmospheric behavior of trace elements on particles emitted from a coal-fired power plant

Abstract

Filter and cascade impactor samples of suspended particles were collected in-stack and at distances up to 64 km downwind in the plume of a large western coal-fired power plant equipped with both electrostatic precipitators (ESP) and venturi wet particulate scrubbers (VWS) to investigate modifications of the particulate signatures of minor and trace elements during transport. Samples were analyzed for 40 elements by instrumental neutron activation analysis. Precipitator malfunction during the experiment caused greater than normal emission of large particles, and concentrations of As, Zn, Sb, Mo, Ga, W, U, V and Ba in near-plume particles collected on filters were enriched relative to their concentrations in stack particles by factors of 1.4 to 2.5, presumably because of sedimentation of very large particles. Selenium was enriched by up to 6-fold (plume:stack). However, enrichment of elements in the plume relative to more typical in-stack particles were insignificant for all elements except Se, which was enriched 2.3-fold. Concentrations of Se on particles in the stack and plume suggest that most of the Se vapor in stack gases became associated with aerosol particles soon after emission. Thus although significant post-emission modifications of elemental signatures of particles may occur for poorly controlled plants, little change is expected for well-controlled plants equipped with ESPs except for Se. Source signatures measured for Se must account for vapor deposition. Impactor data showed a preferential decrease in the concentrations of the above elements in submicrometer particles; suggesting that either intermodal coagulation or size selective sampling losses were important. The impactor data further suggest that enrichment-particle-size profiles for VWS emissions were not conservative during transport. © 1989.