Speaker
Description
Abstract
For over a decade, Thai government has been combating the air pollution problem, especially Particulate Matter (PM), which impacts on environmental and health risks. PM emissions are known to mostly come from transportation, construction, industry, and agricultural sectors. Statistic data shows that during dry season, the elevated PM emissions, primarily attributed to the burning of agricultural residues, comes from rice straw, a crop most harvested in the central part of Thailand. Even though Thailand has legislated laws controlling burning residues in an open area, there is still burning in many areas without authorization. Past literatures showed that one of the methods of reducing PM emissions for solid biofuels in the coal burn industry is by adding additives such as aluminium silicate-based additives (kaolin), sulphur-based additives, calcium-based additives, and phosphorus-based additives. For this reason, this research mainly focused on using kaolin for reducing PM emissions from rice straw burning. The experiment is conducted in an open area. Rice straw with various amounts and sources of kaolin, produced in Thailand, are burned in a burning bucket. PM concentrations were measured by the PMS5003 sensor downstream. In addition, the sizes of PM are classified into PM1, 2.5 and 10, which are particles less than 1, 2.5 and 10 micrometers in diameter respectively. The results show that PM concentration reductions depend not only on the amounts but also on the sources of kaolin.
Keyword: Particulate Matter (PM), Rice Straw Burning, Kaolin
