Chemical and toxicological characterization of organic constituents in fluidized-bed and pulverized coal combustion: a topical report

Abstract

Coal combustion fly ash from both conventional pulverized coal combustion (PCC) and fluidized-bed combustion (FBC) have been characterized as to their organic constituents and microbial mutagenic activity. The PCC fly ash was collected from a commercial utility generating plant using a low sulfur coal. The FBC fly ash was from a bench-scale developmental unit at the Grand Forks Energy Technology Center. Bulk samples of each fly ash were extracted using benzene/methanol and further separated using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Subfractions from the HPLC separation were analyzed by gas chromatography using both element-specific nitrogen-phosphorus detectors and flame ionization detectors. Microbial mutagenicity assay results indicated that the crude organic extracts were mutagenic, and that both the specific activity and the overall activity of the PCC material was greater than that of the FBC material. Comparison of results from assays using S. typhimurium, TA1538NR indicated that nitrated polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAC) were responsible for much of the mutagenic activity of the PCC material. Similar results were obtained for assays of the FBC organic extract with standard and nitroreductase-deficient strains of S. typhimurium, TA100 and TA1538. Mutagenically active HPLC fractions were analyzed using high resolution gas chromatography (HRGC) and GC mass spectrometry (GC/MS), as well as probe inlet low and high resolutions MS. The discovery and identification of nitrated, oxygenated PAC are important because the presence of both nitro and/or keto functionalities on certain PAC has been shown to confer or enhance mutagenic activity.