TC Measurement and Elemental Composition Analysis of Fly Ash - Quantitation by TOC and XRF -

Introduction

The fly ash and incineration ash generated by incineration plants and thermal power plants contain metal oxides such as silica, alumina, calcium oxide and iron as main components, as well as a few percent of incompletely combusted carbon. Elemental and composition analysis of principal components and trace heavy metals is typically conducted by ICP, atomic absorption and X-ray fluorescence, and carbon content is measured using a total organic carbon analyzer (TOC). X-ray fluorescence permits qualitative and quantitative analysis of all elements (qualitative analysis of ₄Be – ₉₂U, quantitative analysis by FP method) with simple pretreatment and operation, but detection and quantitation of carbon (₆C) is difficult when concentrations are just a few percent or less. This limitation can be resolved by using the total carbon (TC) measured value obtained with a TOC solid sample measurement system. Here, we introduce examples of fly ash analysis using the TC measurement values as standard values in conjunction with the calibration curve method associated with X-ray fluorescence.

June 25, 2013 GMT