Arsenic is a well-known toxic chemical and listed as a known carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO, 2001). It is the 20 abundant element in the earth s crust but is widely distributed in the environment being released from both natural sources, e.g. by volcanic action, during weathering of rocks and mining as well as from anthropogenic on...

Using wood wastes provides an opportunity to avoid fossil carbon emissions from the combustion of natural gas or other fossil fuels. Using a life-cycle assessment, a new biomass boiler sourced by forest residuals, sawmill residuals, and clean demolition material (CDM) was compared with an existing natural gas boiler for supplying heat to a large-scale district heating system. Potential alternat...

Biomass burning has important impacts on atmospheric chemistry and climate. Fires in tropical forests and savannas release large quantities of trace gases and particulate matter. Combustion of biofuels for cooking and heating constitutes a less spectacular but similarly widespread biomass burning activity. To provide the groundwork for a quantification of this source, we determined in rural Zim...

Chemical looping combustion of wood pellets (WP), char (WC), and straw (SP) was conducted in a 60 kW CLC pilot with ilmenite braunite oxygen carriers (OCs). Alkali emissions were investigated impactor-based surface ionization detector (SID) measurements. Particle size distributions for WP WC fuels dominated by coarse particles formed refractory species. For SP fuel, the distribution bimodal dis...

A process of conversion of solid carbonaceous fuel into combustible gas by partial combustion is known as gasification. The resulting gas, known as producer gas, is more versatile in its use than the original solid biomass. In the present study, a downdraft biomass gasifier is used to carry out the gasification experiments with the waste generated while making furniture in the carpentry section...

Combustion of wood produces particulate matter (PM) emissions having the potential to induce respiratory tract diseases in humans. To date, however,few, if any, in vitro submerse exposure adverse effect studies characterized the actual particle characteristics within the culture medium. Indeed, the availability of particles and adsorbed toxic compounds in liquids may depend on particle characte...

The amount of light scattered by airborne particles inside an aerosol photometer will vary not only with the mass concentration, but also with particle properties such as size, shape, and composition. This study conducted controlled experiments to compare the measurements of a real-time photometer, the SidePak AM510 monitor (SidePak), with gravimetric mass. PM sources tested were outdoor aeroso...

Grass pellets are a renewable resource that have energy content similar to that of wood. However, the higher ash and chlorine content affects combustion. Thermal degradation analysis of a fuel is useful in developing effective combustion. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of the thermal degradation of grass pellets under inert (nitrogen) and oxidizing (air) atmospheres was conducted. Non-isother...

Combustion of wood produces particulate matter (PM) emissions having the potential to induce respiratory tract diseases in humans. To date, however, few, if any, in vitro submerse exposure adverse effect studies characterized the actual particle characteristics within the culture medium. Indeed, the availability of particles and adsorbed toxic compounds in liquids may depend on particle charact...