Enrichment of thallium in fly ashes in a Spanish circulating fluidized-bed combustion plant

• Thallium behavior in a circulating fluidized bed combustion plant is assessed.
• Thallium is mainly retained in the ashes in a circulating fluidized bed combustion plant.
• In fluidized bed combustion it may be expected that emission of thallium in gas phase would be low.

This work evaluates the behavior of thallium in a 50 MW industrial circulating fluidized-bed combustion plant (CFBC), focusing on the distribution of this element among the bottom and fly ashes separated by the solid retention devices in the plant. The results show that thallium species are mainly retained in the solid by-products and are not emitted to air with flue gases in significant amounts, proving that this technology is a more effective means of preventing thallium emissions than pulverized coal combustion technology (PCC). The mass balance of the thallium content in the solids shows that this element was retained in the ashes separated by the different devices installed in the plant. An evaluation of the ash fractions taken from the strippers, the heat recovery area, the hoppers in the air heater and the electrostatic precipitator, shows that thallium was relatively homogeneously distributed in all the ash samples, independently of their composition, but is slightly related to surface area, which in turn is dependent on particle size and unburned carbon content.