West German coal power plants as sources of potentially toxic emissions

The potential emissions (39 elements) of West‐German coal‐burning power plants have been calculated for 3 major furnace types by means of a new, dynamic model which is based on element partition coefficients between slag, fly‐ash, and stack fly‐ash. The “uncoupling of mass‐ and element mass‐flow”; during wet‐bottom firing with fly‐ash recycling is responsible for the high accumulation of volatile elements in fly‐ash and concomitant stack emissions. The different behaviour of Al, Pb, and Hg in a model power plant is shown in detail.