High Temperature Material Processes (An International Quarterly of High-Technology Plasma Processes) An International Journal

ISSN for PRINT: 1093-3611

For Online Access

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2001, Volume5

Issue 3

160 pages

Issue price - $144.00

S. Hassaine
Laboratoire de physico-chimie industrielle, bat 401, INSA, F-69621 Villeurbanne, France

C. Trassy
EPM-Madylam, ENSHMG, BP 95, F-38402 Saint Martin d'Heres, France

P. Proulx
Plasma Technology Research Centre (CRTP), Department of Chemical Engineering , Faculte de genie, Universite de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke (Qc) CANADA J1K 2R1

Several methods have been used over the past few years to continuously monitor the elemental pollutants in the flue gases released by industrial processes. The most promising apply spectroscopic detection to an argon inductively coupled plasma (ICP) into which the gas to be analysed is injected. The main problem with these methods concerns their reliability for example, a recent comparison with a reference method using filter sampling has exposed systematic discrepancies. This could be due to deposition phenomena inside the sampling system and to the calibration procedure. The latter procedure generally consists in the nebulization and desolvation of a standard solution to obtain dry aerosols. These aerosols are then carried by pure air and injected into the plasma. A detailed study of the calibration procedure showed that errors can be reduced by ensuring that the composition of the carrier gas is carefully controled to be the same as that of the gas in which the heavy metals are analysed. It is also possible to choose operating conditions that are insensitive to changes in sample gas composition, but the limits of detection are degraded. The ICP technique has been evaluated using two field tests: at a pilot plant for fly ash vitrification, and at a coal-fired power plant. These tests confirm that the control of the gas composition is an essential point, which has not been sufficiently taken into account in the past.

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