RESUMO
Fly ash was sampled at the inlet and outlet of ash collectors in four different coal-fired utility boilers using 13-stage low pressure impactor (LPI). The mass distribution, emission characteristics and the composition at different size particle of PM10 were studied. The results show that PM10 of the four boilers have a similar himodal distribution, with two peaks formed around 0.1 microm and 2.36 - 3.95 microm, respectively. The lowest efficiency of ash collectors was between 50% - 65% when the particle sizes were around 0.1 - 1 microm, no matter Venturi water membrane dust collector or ESP was used. Ash collectors show different removal efficiencies to various particle sizes PM. The removal efficiency of ash collectors was about 96% around 10 microm, while under 1 microm it was between 62% - 83%. The chemical composition of the size-segregated ash showed that the element S and Na were obvious enrichment in finer ash, which is possibly formed via vaporization and subsequent condensation of inorganic matter. While the refractory oxides were the major composition in bigger size ash, which may be formed via char fragmentation, excluded mineral fragmentation and included mineral coalescence.