Multielemental analysis of an industrial source emission by nuetron activation analysis : A case study of a palm-oil mill plant

Abstract

The concentrations of 29 elements in palm-oil mill boiler flyash emitted from a mixed fiber and shell fired-fuel palm-oil mill plant were measured using a instrumental neutron ectivation analysis (INAA). Two separate sample of flyash 1) flyash retained bt theparticulate arrestor and 2) stack-ash emission collected downstream of the boiler were studied. Result showed that potentially volatile elements (As, Ba, Cl, Co, Cr, Cs, Sb, Rb and Zn) were enriched in the stack-ash emission as compared to retained-ash. Gallium, K and Na were intermediately enriched and Al, Ca, Ce, Eu, Fe, La, Lu, Mn, Sc, Sm, Th, Ti, V and Yb showed equally concentrated in both samples. Study suggests that the INAA can serve as an important analytical tool in elemental pollution studies from an industrial source emission.