Abstract

Objective in the present study is to quantify a concentration ratio of heavy metal to major element in particulates, such as fly ash suspended in flue gas. The concentration ratio is important information to estimate the enrichment factor, which shows the partitioning behavior of heavy metals in combustion process. Aluminum is not only a normalizing element for an enrichment factor but also an internal reference element for the spectroscopic analysis in this study. Calibration lines for relative line intensities of iron against its concentration ratio in particle samples, simulating fly ash, are presented in this paper. To generalize the calibration lines, plasma temperature decreasing after breakdown was also investigated via Boltzmann plots of iron lines.

© 2002 Optical Society of America