Polyaromatic environmental impact in coal-tire blend atmospheric fluidizedbed (AFB) combustion

It is the first time that in looking for a waste material use and trying to get cheaper power with a lower consumption of fossil fuel, a coal-tire ble nd (1:1 in organic matter) was burned in an atmospheric fluidized bed (AFB) combustion plant with an airflow of 860 L/h and 20% excess oxygen at three different combustion temperatures (750, 850, and 950 degrees C). The combu stion conditions were the same as those used in AFB coal combustion in orde r to compare the organic emissions obtained with both fuels. As the inorgan ic components in tires are less and in lower amount than in coal, the work was focused on organic emissions. Organic emissions from each run were trap ped and from each sample, after extraction by sonication with dimethylforma mide (DMF), the content in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) was deter mined by fluorescence spectroscopy in the synchronous mode (FS). It is conc luded that the introduction of tire in the feeder implies an increase in to tal PAH amount emitted with respect to coal emissions, with minim variation s at the combustion temperatures studied in this work: the higher the tempe rature, the lower the PAH amount emitted.