Characterization of fly ash from a power plant and surroundings by micro-Raman spectroscopy

Fly ash samples were collected from a Portuguese power plant that burns low-sulphur coals from South Africa, U.S.A., Colombia, and Australia. The fly ashes were collected from the hoppers of the economizers, air heaters, electrostatic precipitators, and from the stack. The power plant air monitoring system was also sampled. The fly ash characterization was conducted by micro-Raman spectroscopy (MRS). The micro-Raman spectroscopic analysis permitted an efficient identification and characterization of different inorganic and organic materials present in fly ash: quartz, hematite, magnetite, calcite, glass, aluminium and calcium oxides, and different types of organic constituents.The study of the structural evolution of the unburned carbon/char material during their path through the power plant, though the use of Raman spectra and Raman parameters reveal that despite the high temperatures they reached, these materials are still structurally disordered. However, a structural evolution occurs in the char from the economizer up to the electrostatic precipitators where the char is structurally more disordered.The different features of the Raman spectra observed for carbon particles collected from the stack, together with the high range of variation of the Raman parameters, confirm the existence of different carbon particles in the stack, i.e., char and others (probably soot).The filters from the surroundings contain a variety of carbon particles with Raman parameters different from the ones obtained in the fly ash hoppers and stack. These are diesel particles as indicated by the values of WD1, FWHMD1, FWHMG, WG and ID1/IG obtained.