Prediction of particulate matter during the combustion of wood pellets with the addition of face mask waste

Abstract

The amount of plastic waste has increased enormously due to the using of protective equipment in order to slow down the viral transmission of COVID-19. The usage of protective face masks brought a huge environmental burden. Moreover, a lot of disposed masks enter the ocean or end on landfills, where they threaten the ecosystem. It is still necessary to deal with environmental-friendly disposal or to reuse and recycle of these masks. This article is focused on the disposal of FFP2 face masks by their co-combustion with wood. Due to the possibility of produced emissions, disintegrated masks were blended with spruce and beech sawdust and compared with pure wood. These materials were compressed into pellets with the aim of higher density. The emissions such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides and particulate matter were measured during pellet combustion. The heat output of the automatic pellet boiler was also determined. The filters with captured particulate matter were sent to the investigation of dioxin and furan concentration. Except for this, the regression model has been created for the prediction the concentration of particulate matter. The results confirmed that the co-combustion of wood with FFP2 masks could be one of the environmental-friendly ways of face mask disposal when they are used as an additive in a small percentage. The fuel composition and operational conditions are also very important parameters during the combustion process. However, the concentration of gas emissions and particulate matter, as well as heat output, did not change significantly, when the content of FFP2 masks of 5 % or 10 % was used.