Pollutant Emissions and Heavy Metal Migration in Co-Combustion of Sewage Sludge and Coal

Chunyu Liu, Changtao Yue () and Yue Ma
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Chunyu Liu: State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Changtao Yue: State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China
Yue Ma: State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-15

Abstract: The treatment of sewage sludge has become a global concern. Large amounts of sewage sludge can be disposed of by burning coal-mixed sludge. Thermogravimetric analysis and lab-scale combustion experiments in a drop tube furnace were utilized to study the combustion characteristics, pollutant emissions, and heavy metal migration during the co-combustion of coal and sewage sludge. The results showed that the blended fuels with a sewage sludge content less than 10 weight percent exhibited coal-like combustion characteristics. Additionally, the additional sewage sludge favored the ignition performance of blended fuels. When sewage sludge was added, the SO 2 emissions rose to 76 mg/Nm 3 under the 10% sludge condition—nearly three times higher than that of coal alone. While NO x emissions stayed mostly unchanged, HCl and HF emissions were very low. Meanwhile, Cr, Cu, and Ni migrated to the bottom ash, and their concentrations were all reduced with an increase in sewage sludge. Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Hg migrated to the flue gas, mostly in the form of gaseous components. The results provide crucial information in the co-combustion of sewage sludge and coal, with implications in the development and improvement of large-scale, harmless, and resource-recovering techniques for waste sludge.

Keywords: sewage sludge; coal; co-combustion; emission; heavy metals; migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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