Combustion Air Humidification for NOx Emissions Reduction in Gas Boiler: An Experimental Study

NOx emission reduction from gas boilers has become a key issue in improving air quality. Combustion air humidification technology is gradually being used to reduce NOx emissions. However, the NOx emission reduction effect of gas boilers at a higher combustion air humidity has been studied less. A flue gas with low NOx emissions and a waste heat recovery system using combustion air humidification technology are proposed in this study. In the ultra-low NOx mode, the effect of high combustion air humidity on NOx emission reduction and efficiency of the gas boiler were studied experimentally. In the waste heat recovery mode, the effects of the heat network backwater temperature on the NOx emission reduction and system efficiency were studied experimentally. Results showed that an increase in air humidity can significantly reduce the NOx concentration formed by combustion. The ultra-low NOx mode reduces NOx emissions from 130 mg/m3 to 23.3 mg/m3 and affects the boiler efficiency slightly. In the waste heat recovery mode, NOx emissions can be reduced to 39.9 mg/m3 when the backwater temperature of the heat network is 55 °C. This condition improves the efficiency to 93.8%. The analysis results provide suggestions for the selection of the operation modes.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Process and Energ

Contrasting effects of extracellular polymeric substances on the surface characteristics of bacterial pathogens and cell attachment to soil particles

Extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) have been confirmed to affect bacterial surface properties and cell attachment to minerals. However, no systematic work has been done to clarify the contrasting roles of EPS in cell attachment to natural soil between different pathogenic strains. This study compared the different surface properties and attachment behaviors of two bacterial pathogens (with full or partial EPS) using attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, potentiometric titration, zeta potential, hydrophobicity analysis, DLVO theory, and attachment tests. Cation exchange resin (CER) was employed to remove the EPS on Streptococcus suis and Escherichia coli such that the contribution of EPS to cell attachment to soil could be determined. ATR-FTIR confirmed the binding sites differed between S. suis and E. coli EPS. Notably, after partial EPS removal the absorption bands of S. suis between 1800 cm(-1) and 800 cm(-1) shifted or disappeared, whereas the lack of EPS did not affect the infrared absorption peaks for E. coli. This result suggests the overall surface site types within the E. coli EPS were similar to the residual EPS fractions or cell wall. The partial removal of EPS also changed the proton-active site concentrations of both cell types, and reduced the bacterial surface charge densities by 7%-17%. The negative charges on bacterial surfaces followed the order of full EPS-S. suis < partial EPS-S. suis < partial EPS-E. coli < full EPS-E. coli (ionic strength 1-100 mM; pH 5.6-5.8). With the removal of EPS, the average hydrophobicities of S. suis increased by 5% while those of E. coli decreased by 11%. EPS removal inhibited the attachment of S. suis to soil particles (<2 mm) but enhanced E. coli attachment across the IS range of 1-100 mM, which was attributed to the alteration in electrostatic repulsion. At IS 60-100mM, a sudden reduction in the attachment was observed only for full EPS-S. suis, which could be ascribed to the steric hindrance derived from EPS. However, full EPS-E. coli and partial EPS-E. coli showed similar increasing attachment trends at IS 1-100 mM. This study clearly showed the distinct contribution of EPS to pathogen attachment to soil as a function of cell type and EPS present. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved