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A LCA Study of Activated Carbon Adsorption and Incineration in Air Pollution Control

The main purpose of this thesis was to compare GAC adsorption method, VOCs incinerationmethod and Non-treatment alternative by using LCA to find which method or alternative isenvironmentally preferable. The LCA framework proposed by ISO 14040 (1997) has beenconsidered in this research. The comparison was made by considering a flue gas contaminatedby toluene (with three different concentration 100, 1000, 2000 mg/m3). The plant locationwhere the polluted flue gas is emitted has been assumed to be located in Borås, Sweden. Theflow rate of emitted flue gas was 10000m3/hr. The present thesis report contains two mainparts.The results of LCA showed that when the toluene concentration is low (< 100 mg/m3), GACadsorption method, Non-treatment alternative and VOCs incineration method are respectivelypreferable from environmental point of view. On the other side, when the tolueneconcentration of inlet stream is high (>1000 mg/m3), the order of GAC adsorption method,incineration and Non-treatment alternative is more desirable. Furthermore, the resultsillustrated that as toluene plays the role of fuel as a hydrocarbon, VOCs incineration methodis much more suitable when toluene concentration is high due to lower demand on additionalfuel. In the other words, high toluene concentration of influent leads to less environmentalimpact when VOCs incineration method is exploited. Conversely, the environmental impactof GAC adsorption method is increased when the inlet concentration of toluene is escalated.In overall, the weighted result showed that GAC adsorption method is the most preferablemethod while Non-treatment alternative is the worst.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hb-19680
Date January 2010
CreatorsSaffarian, Saman
PublisherHögskolan i Borås, Institutionen Ingenjörshögskolan, University of Borås/School of Engineering
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
RelationMagisteruppsats,

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