Study of the composition and gas-phase release characteristics of salt material extracted from MSW ash particles using STA

The ash material generated from the MSW incineration contains large amounts of alkali metals, heavy metals, chlorine and sulfur mainly deposited as inorganic salts and/or oxides on the surface of the Si-rich ash particles. In this work, the composition and gas-phase release characteristics of salt material extracted from MSW ash particles using a six-stage leaching process is studied using simultaneous thermal analysis (STA). The produced results provide useful information regarding the composition of the salt material and its melting behavior that is considered to play an important role to deposition and corrosion problems at MSW incinerators. The results may be used to model the deposition process and to the better understanding of the corrosion process during MSW incineration.     

Studying the ash behaviour of agricultural residues using thermal analysis

In this paper, the ash behaviour of some typical Mediterranean agricultural residues, such as peach stones, cotton gin wastes and grape residues is studied via simultaneous, (DTA/TG), thermal analysis methods. Furthermore, the effect of various pre-treatment techniques, such as fractionation and leaching, on the ash behaviour of the specific residues is also studied. Fractionation improves some of the main biomass properties such as calorific value, volatiles and ash content but deteriorates significantly the ash chemical composition of the remaining ash fraction. Leaching improves both the main properties of the treated biomass samples and the chemical composition of the remaining ash fraction, while the combination of the two pre-treatment methods results in a merge of their main advantages leading to an even larger improvement of the ash thermal behaviour. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Prediction of the Behaviour of Biomass Ash in Fluidized Bed Combustors and Gasifiers

Two types of agricultural residues (wheat straw and olive residue) in untreated and pretreated (fractionation, leaching) form were tested as concerns their ash melting behaviour during fluidized bed combustion and gasification by means of thermal analysis techniques. The techniques applied included DSC, simultaneous DSC/TG and TG-MS for the determination of low-temperature ash melts and losses caused by the volatilization of alkali material. In combination with ash elemental analyses on the materials, the applied techniques proved to offer valuable information for prediction of the ash behaviour in fluidized bed reactors. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.