Determination of major and minor ash-forming elements in solid biofuels

✍ Scribed by Georg Baernthaler; Michael Zischka; Conny Haraldsson; Ingwald Obernberger

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 814 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0961-9534
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biombioe.2006.06.007

✦ Synopsis

The development of reliable and appropriate methods for the accurate determination of major (Al, Ca, Fe, K, Mg, Na, P, Si, Ti) and minor (As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sb, Tl, V, Zn) ash-forming elements in solid biofuels was the major goal of Task III.2 of the EU project BioNorm. For this purpose, wood+bark, straw and olive residues were analysed using several digestion and determination methods. The digestion methods included wet decomposition in closed vessels with different acid mixtures as well as dryashing techniques. The determination systems included FAAS, GFAAS, CVAAS, ICP-OES, ICP-MS, XRF as well as direct Hgdetermination. Tests were carried out to optimise the methods applied. To summarise the outcomes of these tests, different digestion procedures were developed for major and minor elements. Digestion with H 2 O 2 /HNO 3 /HF followed by neutralisation with H 3 BO 3 was validated for major element analyses, while digestion with H 2 O 2 /HNO 3 /HF was validated for minor element analyses. The validation results show that the applied digestion methods can be recommended for solid biofuel analyses. For the determination of the elements investigated in solid biofuels, the following detection systems can be recommended: