Identification and emission rates of molecular tracers in coal smoke particulate matter

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) Vol. 79; no. 5; pp. 515 - 536
• Main Authors: Oros, D.R., Simoneit, B.R.T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2000; Elsevier
• Subjects: Air pollution caused by fuel industries; Applied sciences; Bituminous coal; Brown coal; Burning; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Exact sciences and technology; Hydrocarbons; Lignite; Metering. Control; Molecular biomarkers; Sub-bituminous coal; Lignite; Brown coal; Hydrocarbons; Sub-bituminous coal; Molecular biomarkers; Bituminous coal; Burning; Smoke emission; Particle emission; Coal; Air pollution; Combustion; Chemical composition; Coal rank
• ISSN: 0016-2361; 1873-7153
• DOI: 10.1016/S0016-2361(99)00153-2

The abundances and distributions of organic constituents in coal smoke particulate matter are dependent on thermal combustion temperature, ventilation, burn time, and coal rank (geologic maturity). Important coal rank indicators from smoke include (1) the decreases in CPIs of n-alkanoic acids, UCM and phenolic compounds with increasing rank, and (2) the increase in the homohopane index [ S/( S+ R)] with increasing rank. Coal smoke emissions may be identified in atmospheric samples by (1) the unresolved to resolved component ratios ( U/ R), (2) the distributions and abundances of aromatic molecular markers, specifically picene, alkylated picenes and alkylhydropicenes, (3) the 17α(H),21β(H)-hopane to 22 R-17α(H),21β(H)-homohopane ratio (range 0.05–0.35), and (4) the presence of other source-specific molecular markers.