The nucleation of aerosols in flue gases with a high content of alkali - A laboratory study

Abstract

The formation of particles during cooling of a synthetic flue gas with vapors of sodium and potassium species is studied in a laboratory tubular reactor with laminar flow. It is shown to agree well with a theoretical model for the process. The kinetics of homogeneous nucleation of the pure chloride vapors is described by the classical nucleation theory, adapted to include the participation of stable dimer as well as monomer vapor molecules. The Tolman equation is used to describe the curvature-dependence of the surface tension of small nuclei. The values of the Tolman parameter for NaCl and KCl are determined from the measurements. The homogeneous nucleation of the pure chlorides is suppressed by even relatively small concentrations of foreign seed particles and is therefore unlikely to contribute to the creation of new particles in real flue gases. The addition of SO2 to the chloride vapor feed, in the presence of oxygen and water vapor, increases the number concentration of effluent particles significantly and affects their composition to include sulphate in addition to chloride. The sulphate content is independent of the peak temperatures of the flue gas but increases with increasing content of oxygen and SO2. The study proves that the alkali sulphates are formed by the sulphation of vapor phase rather than solid, alkali chloride. The sulphate vapors are formed in high supersaturation and show a pronounced tendency towards homogeneous nucleation, which is identified as the likely source of the submicron particles formed in alkali rich flue gases.