Concentrations, profiles, and emission factors of unintentionally produced persistent organic pollutants in fly ash from coking processes

Guorui Liu, Wenbin Liu, Zongwei CAI, Minghui Zheng*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

66 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The coking process has been found to be an important source of unintentionally produced persistent organic pollutants (UP-POPs). However, the concentrations, profiles, and emission factors of UP-POPs in fly ash from coke plants have not been studied. In this study, six UP-POPs (polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs), hexachlorobenzene (HxCBz), and pentachlorobenzene (PeCBz)) were identified and quantified in fly ash from eight coke plants. The average concentrations of the PCDDs, PCDFs, and "dioxin-like" PCBs were 1.5, 2.26, and 0.26pgTEQg-1, respectively, and the average concentrations of the PCNs, HxCBz, and PeCBz were 256, 290, and 146pgg-1, respectively. The proportion each homolog contributed to the total concentration of the PCDFs, PCBs, and PCNs decreased with increasing chlorination level. The PCDFs contributed the biggest proportion of the total UP-POPs toxic equivalents (TEQs), and the average emission factors in fly ash were 10.5, 17.3, and 1.82ngTEQt-1 for the PCDDs, PCDFs, and "dioxin-like" PCBs, respectively, and 1792, 2028, and 1025ngt-1 for the PCNs, HxCBz, and PeCBz, respectively. These data are essential for establishing an integrated UP-POP release inventory.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)421-426
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Hazardous Materials
Volume261
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Oct 2013

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Waste Management and Disposal
  • Pollution
  • Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis

User-Defined Keywords

  • Coking process
  • Dioxins
  • Fly ash
  • Polychlorinated biphenyls
  • Polychlorinated naphthalenes

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