Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in heavy oil flames by gas chromatography—mass spectrometry

✍ Scribed by Stanislaw Slupek; Janusz A. Koziński

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1989
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 548 KB
• Volume: 68
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-2361
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-2361(89)90124-5

✦ Synopsis

In this paper, the types and concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) formed during combustion of heavy oils are presented. A heavy fuel oil and its emulsion with 10% of water (ElO) were burned in a combustion chamber and samples of the combustion products, including PAH, were collected by a water-cooled-injection probe. G.c.-m.s. was used to determine individual PAH. In the initial high-temperature flame zones (0.2-0.4 m from the burner nozzle) 38 individual PAH were identified; most of these are considered as potential precursors of soot in hydrocarbon flames. The total PAH concentration was highest in the initial flame region; lower PAH concentrations resulted from combustion of the oil-water emulsion. As distance from the burner increased, the total concentration decreased, because the PAH underwent dehydrogenation and decomposition due to oxidation. PAH detected in the exhaust section included compounds with known carcinogenic and mutagenic activity.