Thermo-optical properties of residential coals and combustion aerosols

Publication date: April 2018
Source:Atmospheric Environment, Volume 178
Author(s): Máté Pintér, Tibor Ajtai, Gergely Kiss-Albert, Noémi Utry, Diána Kiss, Tomi Smausz, Attila Kohut, Béla Hopp, Gábor Galbács, Ákos Kukovecz, Zoltán Kónya, Gábor Szabó, Zoltán Bozóki
In this study, we present the inherent optical properties of carbonaceous aerosols generated from various coals (hard through bituminous to lignite) and their correlation with the thermochemical and energetic properties of the bulk coal samples. The nanoablation method provided a unique opportunity for the comprehensive investigation of the generated particles under well controlled laboratory circumstances. First, the wavelength dependent radiative features (optical absorption and scattering) and the size distribution (SD) of the generated particulate matter were measured in-situ in aerosol phase using in-house developed and customised state-of-the-art instrumentation. We also investigated the morphology and microstructure of the generated particles using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Electron Diffraction (ED). The absorption spectra of the measured samples (quantified by Absorption Angström Exponent (AAE)) were observed to be distinctive. The correlation between the thermochemical features of bulk coal samples (fixed carbon (FC) to volatile matter (VM) ratio and calorific value (CV)) and the AAE of aerosol assembly were found to be (r² = 0.97 and r² = 0.97) respectively. Lignite was off the fitted curves in both cases most probably due to its high optically inactive volatile material content. Although more samples are necessary to be investigated to draw statistically relevant conclusion, the revealed correlation between CV and Single Scattering Albedo (SSA) implies that climatic impact of coal combusted aerosol could depend on the thermal and energetic properties of the bulk material.



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