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Influence of co-combustion of unsuitable fuels with standardized fuels in households on CO, OGC, PM, and PAH emissions

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Abstract

Waste combustion in residential small-scale combustion units is not legal in the Czech Republic or other European Union countries. The resulting gaseous and particulate pollutants expose inhabitants to smells and toxic compounds and may damage their property and health. This study is designed to define the emissions of gaseous and particulate pollutants and determine the influence of municipal waste combustion on emission factors. Different types of solid fuels, municipal wood wastes (window frames, furniture chipboard), and mixtures of solid fuels with municipal wastes (namely, textiles, plastics, PET briquettes comprising a mixture of PET bottles + wood pellets + frying oil, paper, and floor coverings) were combusted in residential combustion units (such as gasification boiler, boiler with down-draft combustion, overfire boiler, and stove). Studies describing such an extensive range of waste samples combusted in different small-scale combustion units have not yet been published. Emission factors (EFs) for products of incomplete combustion (carbon monoxide (CO), organic gaseous compounds (OGC), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in gaseous and particulate phases) and particulate matter (PM) were within narrow intervals and lowest for standardized wood fuel (dry wood logs only) and 2–4 times higher on average for unsuitable coal samples (coal unsuitable for the particular boiler type used and coal combined with waste), for which values fell within broad intervals.

The EFs of pollutants resulting from incomplete combustion (CO, OGC, and 16 PAHtotal) and PM were lowest for standardized wood fuel (dry wood logs only) and almost two or four times higher on average for unsuitable coal fuels (coal unsuitable for the particular boiler type used and coal combined with waste).

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All data analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the project “Enhancing the implementation of Air Quality Management Plans in Slovakia by strengthening capacities and competencies of regional and local authorities and promoting air quality measures” (project number LIFE18 IPE/SK/000010), funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union.

Funding

The sources of funding for this research are declared in the Acknowledgements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Energy Research Centre, VSB-Technical University of Ostrava, Energy and Environmental Technology Centre, 17. listopadu 2172/15, 708 00, Ostrava–Poruba, Czech Republic

    Jiří Horák, Lenka Kuboňová, František Hopan, Jiří Kremer, Milan Dej, Kamil Krpec, Jiří Ryšavý, Oleksandr Molchanov, Martin Garba & Tadeáš Ochodek

  2. Organic Lab, Odra River Basin District Authority, Varenská 49, 701 26, Ostrava, Czech Republic

    Tomáš Tomšej

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  1. Jiří Horák
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  2. Lenka Kuboňová
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  3. František Hopan
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  4. Jiří Kremer
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  5. Milan Dej
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Contributions

JH: conceptualization, supervision, funding acquisition; LK: writing – original draft, visualization; FH: writing – original draft, formal analysis; MD: methodology, project administration; JK: validation, investigation; TT: validation, investigation; KK: methodology; JR: formal analysis; OM: visualization; MG: resources; and TO: conceptualization, funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Lenka Kuboňová.

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Horák, J., Kuboňová, L., Hopan, F. et al. Influence of co-combustion of unsuitable fuels with standardized fuels in households on CO, OGC, PM, and PAH emissions. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 44297–44307 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18948-y

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