Emission characteristics of harmful air pollutants from cremators in Beijing, China

PLOS ONE, Nov 2019

The process of corpse cremation generates numerous harmful air pollutants, including particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and heavy metals. These pollutants could have severe effects on the surrounding environment and human health. Currently, the awareness of the emission levels of harmful air pollutants from cremators and their emission characteristics is insufficient. In this study, we obtained the emission characteristics of flue gas from cremators in Beijing and determined the localized emission factors and emission levels of harmful air pollutants based on actual monitoring data from nine typical cremators. The results show that the emissions of air pollutants from the cremators that directly discharge flue gas exceed the emission standards of China and Beijing. The installation of a flue gas post-treatment system could effectively reduce gaseous pollutants and the emission levels of PM. After being equipped with a flue gas post-treatment system, the emission concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, CO, SO2 and VOCs from the cremators are reduced by 97.6, 99.2, 19.6, 85.2 and 70.7%, respectively. Moreover, the emission factors of TSP, PM10, PM2.5, CO, SO2 and VOCs are also reduced to 12.5, 9.3, 3.0, 164.1, 8.8 and 19.8 g/body. Although the emission concentration of VOCs from the cremators is not high, they are one of major sources of “odor” in the crematories and demand more attention. Benzene, a chemical that can seriously harm human health, constitutes the largest proportion (~50%) of the chemical components of VOCs in the flue gas from the cremators.

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Emission characteristics of harmful air pollutants from cremators in Beijing, China

May Emission characteristics of harmful air pollutants from cremators in Beijing, China Yifeng Xue 0 1 2 Linglong Cheng 0 1 2 Xi Chen 0 2 Xiaoman Zhai 0 2 Wei Wang 0 2 Wenjie Zhang 0 2 Yan Bai 0 2 Hezhong Tian 0 2 Lei Nie 0 1 2 Shihao Zhang 0 1 2 Tong Wei 0 2 0 Science and Technology Support Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2014BAC23B02), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0201106), the Science Foundation of Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection (2017B01), and the Beijing Excellent Personnel Training Project 1 National Engineering Research Center of Urban Environmental Pollution Control, Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection , Beijing , China , 2 Key Laboratory of Pollution Control of Ministry of Civil Affairs, 101 Institute of Ministry of Civil Affairs , Beijing , China , 3 Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences , Beijing, China, 4 Babaoshan funeral parlor, Beijing , China , 5 State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation & Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University , Beijing , China , 6 College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University , Beijing , China 2 Editor: Chon-Lin Lee, National Sun Yat-sen University , TAIWAN The process of corpse cremation generates numerous harmful air pollutants, including particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and heavy metals. These pollutants could have severe effects on the surrounding environment and human health. Currently, the awareness of the emission levels of harmful air pollutants from cremators and their emission characteristics is insufficient. In this study, we obtained the emission characteristics of flue gas from cremators in Beijing and determined the localized emission factors and emission levels of harmful air pollutants based on actual monitoring data from nine typical cremators. The results show that the emissions of air pollutants from the cremators that directly discharge flue gas exceed the emission standards of China and Beijing. The installation of a flue gas post-treatment system could effectively reduce gaseous pollutants and the emission levels of PM. After being equipped with a flue gas post-treatment system, the emission concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, CO, SO2 and VOCs from the cremators are reduced by 97.6, 99.2, 19.6, 85.2 and 70.7%, respectively. Moreover, the emission factors of TSP, PM10, PM2.5, CO, SO2 and VOCs are also reduced to 12.5, 9.3, 3.0, 164.1, 8.8 and 19.8 g/body. Although the emission concentration of VOCs from the cremators is not high, they are one of major sources of ªodorº in the crematories and demand more attention. Benzene, a chemical that can seriously harm human health, constitutes the largest proportion (~50%) of the chemical components of VOCs in the flue gas from the cremators. - Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files. Introduction China has the highest annual number of deaths in the world. According to the ªChina Civil Affairs Statistical Yearbook 2015º, China's national death toll was 9.77 million, and its corpse cremation rate was 47% in 2014. The process of corpse cremation generates numerous harmful (2017000021733G105). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. air pollutants [1±3], including particulate matter (PM), SO2, NOx, CO, HCl, HF, NH3, VOCs, heavy metals, polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) [4±8]. Due to the characteristics of the funeral sector, the chimney heights are usually low, and the air pollutants disperse close to the ground, thus severely affecting the surrounding air quality and human health [9±17]. The problem of the emissions of harmful air pollutants from cremators is causing increasing social concern. To strengthen the control and management of pollutant emissions from cremators and incinerators, China and Beijing have issued emission standards of air pollutants for crematories (GB13801-2015 and DB1203-2015). These standards have enhanced the emission limits of air pollutants from cremators and incinerators and clarified relevant requirements on pollution control, which are promoting the implementation of prevention and control measures in the crematories to reduce pollutant emission levels. However, the standards have not specified the emission limits of PM10, PM2.5 and VOCs from cremators. Previous studies on air pollutants from cremators have typically focused on the problem of emissions of PCDD/Fs and other persistent pollutants in China and other countries [5,18±20]. The emission characteristics of PM10, PM2.5 and VOCs in flue gas from cremators have seldom been reported. These pollutants have provoked increasing attention for their severe impacts on air quality, v (...truncated)


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Yifeng Xue, Linglong Cheng, Xi Chen, Xiaoman Zhai, Wei Wang, Wenjie Zhang, Yan Bai, Hezhong Tian, Lei Nie, Shihao Zhang, Tong Wei. Emission characteristics of harmful air pollutants from cremators in Beijing, China, PLOS ONE, 2018, Volume 13, Issue 5, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194226