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Emission Characteristics, Speciation, and Potential Environmental Risks of Heavy Metals from Coal-Fired Boilers: A Review

Author

Listed:
  • Yali Tong

    (Centre of Air Pollution Control and Carbon Neutrality, Institute of Urban Safety and Environmental Science, Beijing Academy of Science and Technology, Beijing 100054, China
    College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China)

  • Jiajia Gao

    (School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China)

  • Jingyun Ma

    (China Association of Environmental Protection Industry, Beijing 100045, China)

Abstract

Coal-fired boilers, including coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) and coal-fired industrial boilers (CFIBs), are an important area for achieving sustainability globally as they are one of the globally important sources of anthropogenic emissions of heavy metals (HMs) due to huge amount of coal consumption. To date, the investigation of atmospheric emission characteristics, speciation, and potential environmental risks of HMs from coal-fired boilers has received widespread attention and achieved significant progress. To characterise the emissions of HMs from coal-fired boilers, research is currently being carried out in the areas of (1) studying the release of HMs from coal combustion processes, (2) developing emission factors and emission inventories, and (3) revealing the cross-media partitioning of HMs between different output streams. Research on the chemical forms of HMs in waste from coal-fired boiler is currently focused on chemical valence and speciation components. The sequential chemical extraction method is currently the most widely used method for investigating the chemical fractionations of HMs in wastes from coal-fired boilers. Studies indicate that different HM elements display differentiated characteristics of speciation in waste from coal-fired boilers. Early studies on potential environmental risk and ecological risk caused by HMs are usually based on actual monitoring values of HMs in the target environmental media. The risk assessment code method and the leaching toxicity method are the most widely used method to study the potential environmental risk of HMs in waste from coal-fired boilers. With the implementation of global carbon emission reduction strategies, the scale of coal-fired boilers and air pollution control technologies are bound to change in the future. Therefore, as an important component of global efforts to achieve sustainable development, more research is needed in the future to improve the accuracy of emission inventories, reveal the mechanisms of HM chemical transformation, and establish methods for potential environmental risk assessment at regional scales.

Suggested Citation

  • Yali Tong & Jiajia Gao & Jingyun Ma, 2023. "Emission Characteristics, Speciation, and Potential Environmental Risks of Heavy Metals from Coal-Fired Boilers: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-15, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:15:p:11653-:d:1204721
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