| Popis: |
Petroleum-contaminated sediment and coal refuse have been considered for beneficial use in this research. Sediment, which is contaminated with petroleum wastes, is harmful to animals and environment, and needs to be treated. On the other hand, coal refuse is not considered as hazardous, but its abundance, attracts people to gain some benefit from it. Both types of waste are considered to be beneficially useful. Therefore, this research focuses on their potential uses and the emissions that result from their applications.The western portion of the Lake George Branch of the Indiana Harbor Canal (IHC) is considered an important habitat for many animal species; however, the lake contains a huge amount of petroleum-contaminated sediment that need to be treated.One of the restoration options of the IHC is dredging up the sediment from the canal, and then some forms of sediment management (disposal or treatment) are required. Consequently, both the public and regulatory authorities will benefit if the dredged material can be used in a beneficial way, such as recovering energy from the petroleum portion or applying it as supplemental construction material. Therefore, the characteristics of sediment are studied in order to determine their possible applications. The experiment examines heat content, elemental, thermal characteristics, and potential emissions analysis. Although the results show that the sediment has various petroleum-like compounds, it contains a low heating value and a high amount of ash, which is considered inappropriate for use as supplemental fuel. Accordingly, sediment is considered to be used as an asphalt binder in hot mix asphalt plants, where in all critical pollutants in the sediment are examined, and the sediment is deemed to be safe for applying as asphalt supplemental material. The coal refuse from the private coal company is analyzed to reduce the emissions of NOx and SO2 from the combustion process while obtaining a high energy value. Therefore, several emission reducing agents are added and mixed with the powder of the refuse, and tested for emissions from combustion tests. The results show that by adding the emission reducing agents into the coal refuse, significant amounts of NOx and SO2 are reduced. |
