A novel clean combustion technology for solid fuels to efficiently reduce gaseous and particulate emissions

Abstract

Approximately three billion people worldwide rely on solid fuels for cooking and heating with traditional stoves or open fires, resulting in severe air pollution which leads to approximately four million premature deaths every year. Here, we present a novel clean combustion technology (NCT) to overcome the inherent defects of existing technologies and reduce emissions from solid fuel combustion. We compared gaseous and particulate emissions from coal combustion between a prevailing traditional domestic stove and an NCT stove. The average reductions were 99% for particulate matter with dynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5), 99% for organic carbon (OC), 98% for elemental carbon (EC), 96% for carbon monoxide (CO), 93% for methane (CH4), 91% for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), 89% for ammonia (NH3), and 99% for carbonyl sulfur (COS). The average coal combustion efficiency was enhanced from 52.6% in the traditional stove to 92.6% in the NCT stove. The novel technology was also successfully applied to the construction of an industrial boiler with a similar or better reduction in air pollutants than the NCT stove. The emission factors of various pollutants from the NCT stoves and boilers fueled with bituminous coal are comparable to those from advanced coal-fired power plants. The wide application of the NCT worldwide, especially in developing countries, would be beneficial to individual health, local air quality, and global climate change.