Assessment of particulate emissions from a sinter plant in steelmaking works in China

In this paper, five particulate emission points from a sinter plant in China, including anthracite crusher, raw material blender, sinter strand, screener, and circular cooler, were selected for particle sampling. The particle size distribution, the toxic element content (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Ti, and Zn), and the morphology of the samples were determined by the gravimetric method, the ICP-OES, and the SEM-EDS, respectively. In addition, the gray relational analysis method was used to evaluate the rank of the particulate emission points in the sinter plant. The results show that the emission factor of PM_TSP, PM₁₀, and PM_2.5 of the whole sintering process is 0.121, 0.075, and 0.039 kg/t-sinter, respectively. Furthermore, the total toxic element emission factor is 5282.49 mg/t-sinter. The sinter strand is the most important emitter and contributes 43.8% of PM_TSP, 53.3% of PM₁₀, 56.4% of PM_2.5, and 81.1% of total toxic element in the sinter plant. Nevertheless, particles emitted from the post-sintering process are non-negligible and contribute 48.8% of PM_TSP, 41.3% of PM₁₀, 38.5% of PM_2.5, and 15.5% of total toxic element in the sinter plant.