A Field Evaluation Of Particulate Emission Concentrations In Palm Oil Mill Boilers

Abstract

A field evaluation on particulate emission concentrations from two different types of palm oil mill boilers (i.e water-tube, WT, and fire-tube, FT type boilers) was performed using a standard stack sampling procedures. A total of 12 WT and 12 FT boilers were studied. Six of the 12 WT boilers were equipped with multi-cyclones as a means of controlling particulate emissions from the boilers, whilst all 12 FT boilers were without any form of air particulate control equipment. Results showed that the mean particulate emission concentrations from water-tube type boilers with and without particulate control equipment installed was 1.11 ± 0.58 g/Nm³ and 1.93 ± 1.40 g/Nm³ respectively. There was no significant difference in the particulate emissions between WT boilers with or without particulate control installed. It was found that only one out of the six WT boilers with particulate control was able to meet the emission standards limit of 0.40 g/Nm³ while others were still violating the standard. Meanwhile, the mean particulate emission from all 12 FT type boilers (all were without control) was 0.5 1 ± 0.27 g/Nm³, which was found to be significantly lower (p 0.01) compared to the WT boiler emissions of without particulate control.Apparently, the characteristic of particulate size distributions generated by the two types of boilers could be an important factor affecting the findings and it is discussed further in this paper. Keywords :air pollution, particulate, palm oil mill, boilers.