Abstract for presentation at 14th IUAPPA World Congress

Purpose: Small scale combustion units and domestic stoves are known as major sources of air pollution in residential areas. In this context emission measurement programmes were carried out in Germany to determine fine particulate matter in the waste gases.
Methods: The PM₁₀, PM_2.5 and PM_1.0 fractions in the waste gas were sampled using a cascade impactor technique. Additional total dust concentrations were determined. Waste gas samples were taken from small-scale combustion units and domestic stoves (4 kW – 500 kW), firing lignite briquettes, wood, wood pellets and energy grain.
Results: In total 250 individual measurement results were obtained during 31 different measurement campaigns. The study found out that the PM₁₀ – proportions for all results vary typically between 92 – 99 % of the total dust, the PM_2.5 – proportion between 79 – 95 % and the PM_1.0 proportion between 63 - 88 % of the total dust.
The determined particle size distributions show interesting similarities with high to very high proportions of fine particles. In comparison to other industrial processes clear differences could be identified. In these cases the particle size distributions show obvious coarser particle proportions.
Conclusion: The results demonstrate that solid fuel combustion in small scale units without abatement technique induced enhanced levels of PM-emission and very high proportions of fine particles in the waste gas. The highest levels of total dust emission concentration we found out in cases, where energy grain were used, the lowest total dust emission for wood pellet combustion.