In-Situ Characteristics of Particle Emissions from Biomass Combustion

In this work we used a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer and an Electrical Low-pressure Impactor to: a) Derive information of the particle morphology through air-borne analysis and b) Identify time and size variations of particle phase components from incomplete combustion and ash-components. The results presented here covers measurements in two moving grate boilers (12 MW operating on moist forest residue and 1.5 MW operating on wood pellets). We have previously shown that PM1 estimated from Electrical Low-Pressure Impactor (ELPI)-measurements consisted of a rather constant background with peaks correlating with CO and OGC peaks. In the 1.5 MW boiler EC contributed to 34% of PM1, while in the 12 MW boiler EC was below 0.5%. Figure 2 shows time variations in the 1.5 MW boiler as the current in three stages of the ELPI-impactor. Note that time-variations increase strongly with particle size. The fraction of the gravimetric mass detected as water-soluble ions (IC) decreased from ∼ 70% for dae= 78 and 133 nm to ∼ 25% for 322 and 510 nm particles and increased to around 50% for particles larger than 1 μm. In the 12 MW boiler time variations were as low as for 128 nm particles and IC recovery was high for all studied particle sizes. Based on these data we conclude that PM consisting of ash-components are formed with small time variations mainly in mobility-sizes below 250 nm, while Elemental Carbon is emitted at high concentrations during peaks on the time-scale 10-30 s, mainly in particle sizes larger than 150 nm. However, the detailed mixing status of these two particle types/materials is still not known.