Annex 52 Complementary information to source group 8 Miscellaneous

Overview of recent revisions

New emission factors are included for residues in category 8a Dying of biomass and 8eTobacco smoking. In category 8b Crematoria, open air cremations have been explicitly introduced in class 2.

Derivation of emission factors

8a Drying of Biomass

Release to Air

Measured concentrations in air ranged from 0.005 ng I-TEQ/Nm³ to 3.51 ng I-TEQ/Nm³ with a median of 0.16 ng I-TEQ/Nm³ (LUA 1997). The very high concentration was found when PCP-treated wood was used as a fuel for drying of green fodder.

Release in Products

Concentrations in the product, e.g., virgin wood are close to detection limit, around 0.1 ng I-TEQ/kg and for fodder, concentrations as being found in biomonitoring studies with Welsh rye grass can be used. The concentrations found in the dried product, when contaminated wood was used as a fuel, were between 0.3 and 0.8 ng I-TEQ/kg d.m. An emission factor of 0.5 μg I-TEQ/t should be applied if PCP-treated wood is the fuel and an emission factor of 0.1 μg I-TEQ/t will be applied if clean fuel is used (LUA 1997).

Release to Residues

Emission factors for residues have been developed based on expert judgment and analogy with category 8c Smoke houses.

8b Crematoria

Release to Air

Kim et al. (2003) reported air emissions from 0.46 to 2.1 ng TEQ/Nm³ from Korean crematoria corresponding to an emission factor of 8.4 μg TEQ/body cremated.

In Thailand, PCDD/PCDF concentrations were measured in flue gas and bottom ashes from a crematory that had a refractory- lined primary combustion chamber and a secondary combustion chamber with an afterburner. Both chambers were fired with light fuel-oil. Flue gases were directed through a refractory- lined flue gas duct that discharged through an underground brick flue gas duct into a brick-lined stack located about 15 meters away from the furnace (UNEP 2001, Fiedler et al. 2002).

Since the Thai crematory had an afterburner, it would have been considered as class 2 with an EFAIR of 10 μg TEQ/body cremated. However, PCDD/PCDF concentrations at the stack ranged from 10.5 to 28.6 ng I-TEQ/m³ with an average of 17.6 ng I-TEQ/m³ (at 11% O2). The EFAIR derived from this value is 18 μg TEQ/body cremated, which is higher than that for class 2 crematories.. This is attributed to the discharge of combustion gases through a long underground flue gas duct, which maintained the gases at temperatures favoring PCDD/PCDF formation (UNEP 2001, Fiedler et al. 2002).

A national monitoring program of air pollutant releases from crematoria, including PCDD/PCDF, was carried out in France in 2005 (Livolsi et al. 2011). Results show that:

  • PCDD/PCDF concentrations in flue gas generally ranged from 0.1 to less than 1 ng I-TEQ/m³. However, a high concentration of 4.18 ng I-TEQ/m³ was found at one crematorium. This exceptional ly high emission could not be explained.
  • For crematoria, PCDD/PCDF concentrations in flue gas are higher than the air emission limit value for municipal solid waste incinerators (0.1 ng I-TEQ /Nm³).

Factors that influence dioxin emissions from crematoria could not be identified.

Release to Water

Normally, wet scrubbers or water quenching are not used at crematoria and thus, no discharges to water will occur. If wet scrubbers are used, the wastewater may end up in local sewer systems or be discharged without any prior treatment. In Western Europe, APC systems are commonly wastewater-free because the wastewater is evaporated internally.

Release to Land

There are no releases to land.

Release in Products

There are no products generated.

Release in Residues

Poor combustion conditions will result in poor burn-out of the organic carbon and in higher concentrations in the fly ash and furnace ash. PCDD/PCDF concentrations in the bottom ashes collected from a crematory in Thailand were 44 and 48 ng I-TEQ/kg of bottom ash (UNEP 2001, Fiedler et al. 2002). However, insufficient data are available to provide an emission factor.

8c Smoke Houses

Release to Air

PCDD/PCDF concentrations in off-gases from smoke houses have been published from Germany (LAI 1995). A conventional smoke-curing chamber emits about 300 m³/h of flue gas and produces about 50 kg product per hour. The flue gas volume will be 6,000 m³/t product. With the measured data of 1.02 ng TEQ/m³ for a smoke house without thermal afterburning and 0.1 ng TEQ/m³ for a smoke house with thermal afterburning, the emission factors for class 2 and class 3 have been derived.

Release to Water

Normally, wet scrubbers are not used at smoke houses and thus, no discharges to water will occur.

Release to Land

There are no releases to land.

Release in Products

There are no systematic measurements on smoked meat and fish. An increase in the dioxin concentration of the foodstuff has been found in a few measurements. However, the concentration in the foodstuff is determined by the origin of the foodstuff (with higher concentrations in beef and sheep, lower concentrations in pork; highly variable with eventually very high concentrations in fish).

Release in Residues

The emission factors are the same as those for wood combustion.

8d Dry Cleaning Residues

Release to Water

No release to water is expected.

Release to Land

No release to land is expected.

Release in Products

There are no products generated (concern is with the distillation residues only).

Release in Residues

Emission factors for residues are derived for highly contaminated textiles (3,000 µg TEQ/t distillation residue) and normal textiles (50 µg TEQ/t distillation residue) based on Towara et al. (1992) and Umlauf et al. (1993).

8e Tobacco Smoking

Investigations of the ten most popular brands smoked in Germany gave “emissions” of 0.1 pg I-TEQ/cigarette (Ball et al. 1990). In Japan, Aoyama et al. (2003) reported PCDD/PCDF in mainstream and sidestream cigarette smoke at concentrations of 0.35 to 2.4 pg TEQ per cigarette for five popular brands. In evaluating PCDD/PCDF in mainstream smoke from U.S. cigarettes, Wilson et al. (2008) reported concentrations of 5.8-28.4 fg TEQ/cigarette for low-tar cigarettes, 18.7 to 162.6 fg TEQ/cigarette for medium-tar cigarettes, and 61.0-181.5 fg TEQ/cigarette for high-tar cigarettes. Including all cigarette grades, the average PCDD/PCDF content of mainstream smoke was 69.1 fg TEQ/cigarette.

Release to Air

An EFAir of 1 pg TEQ/cigarette is presented based on Ball et al. (1990) and Wilson et al. (2008).

An EFAir of 3 pg TEQ/cigar is presented based on the assumption that the quantity of tobacco in an average cigar is about three times that of a cigarette.

Release to Water

EFWater is set to NA.

Release to Land

EFLAND is set to NA.

Release in Products

There are no products generated.

Release in Residues

An EFResidue of 0.1 µg TEQ/million cigarettes is presented based on Aoyama et al. (2003).

An EFResidue of 0.3 µg TEQ/million cigars is presented based on the assumption that the amount of ash in an average cigar is about three times that of a cigarette.