Investigation of sulfur speciation in particles from small coal-burning boiler by XANES spectroscopy

Abstract: Sulfur K-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy was employed to study the speciation of sulfur in raw coal, ash by-product and fine particulate matter from a small coal-burning boiler. By means of least square analysis of the XANES spectra, the major organic and inorganic sulfur forms were quantitatively determined. The results show that about 70% of the sulfur in raw coal is present as organic and a minor fraction of the sulfur occurs as other forms: 17% of pyrite and 13% of sulfate. While in bottom ash, fly ash, and PM_2.5, the dominant form of sulfur is sulfate, with the percentage of 80,79 and 94, respectively. Moreover, a number of other reduced sulfur including thiophenic sulfur, element sulfur and pyrrhotite are also present. During coal combustion, most of organic sulfur and pyrite were oxidized and released into the atmosphere as SO₂ gas, part of them was converted to sulfate existing in coal combustion by-products, and a small part of pyrite was probably reduced to elemental sulfur and pyrrhotite. The results may provide information for assessing the pollution caused by small boiler and developing new methods for the control of SO₂ pollution.