ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Effects of Biomass Co-Combustion with Coal
on Functional Speciation and Mobility
of Heavy Metals in Industrial Ash
Jan Kalembkiewicz, Urszula Chmielarz
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Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry,
Rzeszów University of Technology, Powstancow Warszawy Ave. 6, 35-959 Rzeszów, Poland
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2013;22(3):741-747
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Comparative studies of industrial fly ash from coal and biomass co-combustion (50%: mixture of sunflower
pellets, wood chips, and straw briquettes) and coal ash were conducted. The functional speciation of
metals (Pb, Cd, Zn, Cu) and mobility of chemical fractions of ash (soluble in water, exchangeable, soluble in
acids pH5, oxide, pseudosulfide, residual) were carried out with a 6-stage sequential extraction and singlestage
mineralization methods. It was found that the addition of biomass to coal results in ash containing more
Zn, a decrease in the content of Cd, and no major changes in total content of Pb and Cu. A mixture of sunflower
pellets, wood chips, and straw briquettes added to coal as biomass results in an increase of the ash fractions:
exchangeable (Pb), pseudosulfide (Pb, Cu), oxide and residual (Zn), reduction in ash fractions: soluble
in acid pH5 (Pb, Cd, Zn), oxide (Cu), pseudosulfide (Zn), residual (Cd). Biomass co-combusted with coal
(50/50 m/m) improves the ash by reduction of the environmental mobility of Pb, Cd and Zn, but does not cause
major changes in the mobility of Cu in relation to coal ash.