Segment-based Volatile Organic Compound Emission Characteristics from Different Types of Coking Plants in China

Rumei Li; Yulong Yan; Lin Peng; Yinghui Li; Zhuocheng Liu; Zhanchun Fan; Huanfeng Li; Yang Xu; Cheng Wang; Dongmei Hu; Zhiyong Li

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2020.04.0145

Segment-based Volatile Organic Compound Emission Characteristics from Different Types of Coking Plants in China

Rumei Li^1,2, Yulong Yan ¹, Lin Peng¹, Yinghui Li¹, Zhuocheng Liu¹, Zhanchun Fan³, Huanfeng Li³, Yang Xu^1,2, Cheng Wang^1,2, Dongmei Hu¹, Zhiyong Li⁴

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¹MOE Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental System Optimization, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
²School for Energy, Power and Mechanical Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
³ Shanxi Ecological Environment Monitoring Center, Taiyuan 030027, China
⁴ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Baoding 07100, China

Received: April 11, 2020
Revised: June 11, 2020
Accepted: June 16, 2020

Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.04.0145

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Cite this article:

Li, R., Yan, Y., Peng, L., Li, Y., Liu, Z., Fan, Z., Li, H., Xu, Y., Wang, C., Hu, D., Li, Z. (2021). Segment-based Volatile Organic Compound Emission Characteristics from Different Types of Coking Plants in China. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 21, 200145. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2020.04.0145

HIGHLIGHTS

Typical VOCs source profiles of major coking plants in China were established.
Segments-based VOCs source profiles during coking processes was different.
VOCs emission factors of non-recovery coking process was 96 g Mg^–¹ coke.
VOCs from oven leaks in mechanical coking plant had a higher reactivity.
Phasing out non-recovery coking plant would help reducing VOCs emission.

ABSTRACT

The source profiles, emission factors, and chemical reactivity of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) generated by two typical coking plants, one employing a non-recovery process and the other, a mechanical process, in Shanxi Province, a major coking hub in China, were determined for different segments of coke production during normal operations. The primary components in the stack flue gas were ethylene, 1-butene, benzene, acetylene, and 2,2-dimethylbutane for the non-recovery plant and styrene, benzene, and ethylene for the mechanical plant. The fugitive emissions were also monitored at the mechanical plant, and the most abundant species leaking from the oven were benzene, toluene, ethane, m-xylene, and ethylene, whereas those leaking from byproducts were benzene, propane, ethane, ethylene, n-pentane, n-butane, isobutene, 1-butene, toluene, and propylene. The stack flue gas at the non-recovery and mechanical coking plants exhibited VOC emission factors of 96 g Mg^–1-coke and 0.4 g Mg^–1-coke, respectively; thus, VOCs released by the former merit greater concern. Since the highest ozone formation potential (OFP) was observed for the stack flue gas at the non-recovery plant (80.26 mg m^–3), followed by fugitive oven emissions at the mechanical plant (7.22 mg m^–3), controlling these VOCs will significantly reduce their conversion into ozone. Overall, replacing non-recovery coking plants with mechanical coking plants will decrease VOC emissions and improve the ambient air quality in China.

Keywords: Volatile organic compounds, Source profiles, Emission factors, Coking plant, Coking segments

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