Investigation and Estimation of Exhaust Gas Emission from Fermentable Waste Combustion

Abstract

The threat of increased global warming has subjected the use of fossil fuels to increasing scrutiny in terms of greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions. As a result, the use of renewable and sustainable energy resources, such as biomass, has become increasingly attractive. In view of increase in the demand for waste utilization and combustion of renewable fuels, materials of these kinds are more often burned together with coal in steam generators, what may be the lowest-cost option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Because of their organic origin, these fuels (wood, bark, straw, sewage sludge, municipal solid wastes, agricultural waste, bone meal, etc.) are termed ‘biomass’, although they include not only strictly natural components. The biomass and waste fuels also contain mineral matter, generally in proportions strongly different from those found in coal. The agricultural products industries generate large quantities of biomass residues that could also provide fuel for electricity production. Increasing the use of such fuels could alleviate the burdens and environmental consequences of waste disposal in the agricultural products industries and waste water treatment plants. The use of biomass as fuel is predetermined at first by ecological point of view because during combustion process formed carbon dioxide is a participant of natural carbon cycle and do not impact to green house effect. However the ecologically compatibility of fermentable biomass including agricultural waste combustion is not proved in full. In this article the results of practical investigations of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and oxygen concentrations in the smoke during anaerobic digestion animal litter and manure combustion are presented.