Biao Fu

Huazhong University of Science and Technology | hust · State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion (SKLCC)

Cobalt has excellent electrochemical, magnetic, and heat properties. As a strategic resource, it has been applied in many high-tech products. However, the recent rapid growth of the battery industry has substantially depleted cobalt resources, leading to a crisis of cobalt resource supply. The paper examines cobalt ore reserves and distribution, an...

Enriched trace elements in coal are considered to have a high environmental impact, but the extent of the influence of the enrichment level is unclear. To study the chemical speciation and environmental behavior of trace elements in coal at different enrichment levels, representative coal samples from multiple provinces in China were collected, inc...

Chromium (Cr), one of the prime hazardous trace elements in coals, may engender adverse effects on eco-environment and threaten human health during utilization of coal. Based on the samples obtained in our laboratory and published literature, the abundance and modes of occurrence of Cr in Chinese coals, and the environmental impacts associated with...

Tailings (refuse) material, a mixture of fine coal and rock from the beneficiation of high volatile C bituminous Pennsylvanian Illinois Basin coals, was recovered from the tailings pond near the site of the former preparation plant. The material has widely varying concentrations of some elements, such as Sn, which might reflect non-coal contaminati...

The arsenic (As) and selenium (Se) in fine particulate matter (PM10) have attracted increasing attentions due to their health effects. However, the emission control of fine particulate-bound arsenic and selenium (fine particulate-bound As/Se) from coal-fired power plants still faces various challenges. Understanding the formation and characteristic...

The Allegheny Plateau in western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, and northern West Virginia has relatively flat-lying strata with southwest-northeast-trending anticlines cored by splay faults originating from the thrust faults and southeast-northwest-trending lineaments. The lineaments define both the structural relief of the anticlines and the coa...

Rare earth elements and yttrium (REY) have attracted considerable attention over the last decade because of their vital roles in clean energy, consumer product, national defense and security applications, among other uses. Due to the retention of REY during coal burning, coal combustion ash is considered as potential alternative sources for REY. Un...

Gaseous selenium is of high saturated vapor pressure, making its retention in solid phases quite difficult during coal combustion. The selenium transformation from gaseous form into solid phases at low temperatures can be essential to control selenium emission. To understand the migration of SeO2 (g) on ash particles in the low-temperature zone, th...

Halogenated activated carbon adsorbents exhibit superior mercury capture performance in the flue gas. Not only the fabrication of effective adsorbents, but the used adsorbents stability is also crucial. It is essentially determined by product bonding nature. Here, Density functional theory was employed to investigate spent halogenated activated car...

Adopting ICP-AES and ICP-MS to determine the content of 53 elements (6 macro-elements, 47 trace elements), which used HNO3 (5 mL) and H2O2 (2 mL) to digest Baishao (Paeoniae Radix Alba) by microwave. These herbs obtained from six producing areas in China, namely Xuanwu (Henan province), Shihezi (Xinjiang province), Zhongjiang (Sichuan province), Pa...

Fine particulate matter (PM) emitted from coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) has aroused widespread environmental and human health concerns. Cadmium (Cd), as one of the prime toxic air pollutants, which exists in fine PM intensifies its toxicity. In this research, three particle sizes of PM (PM1, PM2.5, and PM10) at the outlet of electrostatic precipi...

The conversion of As vapor released from coal combustion to less hazardous solids is an important process to alleviate As pollution especially for high-As coal burning, but the roles of key ash components are still in debate. Here, we used multiple analytical methods across the micro to bulk scale and density functional theory to provide quantitati...

Based on analysis of a large data set and supplementary sampling and analysis for hazardous trace elements in coal samples from the Huainan Coalfield, a generalized contrast-weighted scale index method was used to establish a model to evaluate the grade of coal cleanliness and its regional distribution in the main coal seam (No. 13-1) The results s...

Inhalable fine particulate matter (PM), which is rich in Pb and other pollutants from coal-fired power plants, can cause air pollution and severe health problems. To facilitate the development of efficient techniques for controlling fine particulate Pb emissions, in this study, various types of size-resolved fine PM (<10.0 μm) were collected from t...

The installation rate of denitrification devices is accelerating in Chinese urban boilers. Previous studies on pulverized coal-fired boilers without denitrification devices showed that combustion products containing mainly oxidized mercury (Hg) preferably enriched lighter Hg isotopes than feed coals. However, the magnitude of this enrichment become...

Arsenic is a harmful trace element and its behavior under several combustion conditions is of interest. Though the mechanisms regarding arsenic capture and transformation in combustion systems are well known, it is still worth investigating the dominant factors for particular fuels and combustion conditions. Considering the widely application of bi...

Mercury (Hg) stable isotopes have a great potential to track coal combustion Hg emissions, but mass-dependent fractionation (MDF) during Hg adsorption onto fly ash particles could significantly alter isotope signatures of emitted Hg species. The detailed processes causing this MDF, however, are not well understood. Here, we simulated how isotopes f...

The interactions between selenium vapors and coal accessory Ca/Fe-minerals favor selenium emission control by transferring selenium into fly ash during coal combustion. Considering the complicated effects of iron transformation on selenium retention, iron species in fly ashes from seven coal-fired power plants were distinguished and the association...

Arsenic (As) and selenium (Se) pollution caused by coal combustion is receiving increasing concerns. The environmental impacts of As/Se are determined not only by stack emission but also by leaching process from combustion byproducts. For a better control of As/Se emission from As/Se-enriched coal combustion, this study investigated the migration a...

CaCr2O4 (Cr (III)), mainly generated through the decomposition of CaCrO4 (Cr (VI)), is a significant intermediate for toxic Cr (VI) formation during solid fuel combustion. In this study, the formation, oxidation and sulfation kinetics of CaCr2O4 were analyzed to forecast the potential of CaCr2O4 oxidation during co-firing of coal and solid waste in...

Fly ash and bottom ash chemistry is a function of the chemistry and mineral assemblages of the feed coal in addition to coal pulverization, boiler type and size, combustion parameters and combustion efficiency, and configuration of the ash collection system. Pulverization eliminates < 1% of the raw feed coal, but, in reducing the amount of pyrite a...

The concentration of lanthanides, Y, and Sc, collectively rare earth elements (REE), and their modes of emplacement in Appalachian coals, with emphasis on Manchester and Fire Clay coals in eastern Kentucky are the focus of this investigation. Those coals have distinct REE concentrations and relationships related to the position of the lithotype wit...

Selenium (Se) mostly evaporates during coal combustion and the transformation of gaseous Se towards particulate forms favors its emission control by dust purification devices. For better control of Se emission, the present study explored the relationship between Se retention and fine particles removal during coal burning. The distribution of Se wit...

Arsenic is easily evaporated with coal combustion, which not only causes serious environmental issues but also leads to the deactivation of selective catalytic reduction (SCR) catalyst. This study focused on the re-using of coal-fired fly ash for arsenic vapors in-situ retention before SCR catalyst in the furnace. Experiments were carried out to es...

Arsenic is easily volatilized as vapors during coal combustion and predominantly transferred into particulate forms. The removal of particulate arsenic together with fine fly ash particles is essential to control arsenic emission during coal combustion. In this study, fly ashes and different size fraction samples (PM2.5, PM10, and PM20) were collec...

A total of twelve coal samples at bituminous rank from China were studied using a combination of elemental analyzer/isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA/IRMS) and solid-state ¹³ C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy techniques to determine their carbon isotopic compositions and carbon types. Carbon isotope analysis showed that the δ ¹³ C v...

A combination of thermogravimetric analysis and lab-scale fixed bed combustion experiments was carried out to study the thermochemical, kinetic and heavy metals emission behavior during co-combustion of industrial coal slurry (CS) and sewage sludge (SS). The results found that the blends had integrative combustion profiles which reflected both coal...

Sewage sludge (SS), the inevitable byproduct of wastewater treatment plants, is facing numerous challenges of environmentally safe and cost-effective disposal. Thus, exploration of efficient SS valorization technique is highly desired. In this study, a sludge derived carbon-supported MnOx as a catalyst (ASMn-Nb) was synthesized through NH4OH activa...

This research focused on the distribution and chemical speciation of Cr, Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, and As in fly ash and flue gas desulfurization gypsum (FGD gypsum) from a large-scale pulverized coal-fired (PC) power plants in Anhui Province of eastern China. The partitioning behavior of the heavy metals (HMs) revealed that trace metals were mainly retained...

At present, environmentally friendly and cost-effective disposal of sewage sludge (SS) is the major challenge of wastewater treatment that prompted the concept of sludge valorization. A recent technology, SS conversion into biochar as an efficient catalyst for environmental application, shows great promise to sludge valorization. This review presen...

Knowledge of the chemical speciation of arsenic and selenium in coal fly ash is essential in the evaluation of the environmental behavior of fly ash disposed in a landfill in a natural environment. In this study, a series of high-As coal fly ash from stoker boilers were collected to determine the chemical forms of arsenic and selenium. The ash surf...

The geochemical behaviors of hazardous elements in the combustion process of Chinese coals with different geological origins at different temperatures were studied. The analyzed coal samples were placed in a fixed bed reactor with a quartz tube and heated to six desired temperature points, from 400 °C to 900 °C with 100 °C for each interval. The mi...

In this study, three coal samples (long flame coal/LFC, coking coal/CC, and anthracite/AC) from the same coal seam in Huaibei coalfield were simulated using in-situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and thermogravimetry/mass spectrometry (TG/MS), respectively. The results show that with increasing coal rank, the Vdaf contents and atomi...

A combination of nitrogen isotope analysis and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques was used to characterize nitrogen isotopic compositions and organic nitrogen forms in a total of 11 coal samples from China. A range of δ¹⁵N values between −2.9‰ and +3.6‰ was observed in all coals, and the N-5 peak is predominant. The results show that a cor...

Emission of hazardous trace elements (HTEs) from energy production is receiving much attention due to concerns about the toxicity to the ecosystem and human health. This study presented new field measurement data on the HTEs partitioning behavior and size-segregated elemental compositions of gaseous particular matter (PM) generated from a commercia...

A series of new biochar-supported composite based on the combination of biochar and metallic nanoparticles (NPs) were produced through single-step pyrolysis of FeCl3–Ti(OBu)4 laden agar biomass under NH3 environment. The physiochemical properties of composites were characterized thoroughly. It has found that heating temperature and N-doping through...

Enhancing biochar adsorption capabilities and recollection ability is essential for efficient biochar application. In this study, Nitrogen-doped magnetic biochar was prepared via one-step heating of FeCl3-laden agar biomass under NH3 environment. Synthesized magnetic biochar ABF-N800 shows a maximum Cr (VI) adsorption capacity up to 142.86 mg g−1,...

The huge demand for high-quality coal in China has resulted in increased generation of preparation plant wastes of various properties. A series of beneficiation products collected from a preparation plant were characterized to understand their petrographic and mineralogical characteristics, as well as thermochemical and trace element behavior durin...

Although the influence of magmatic intrusions on coal has been studied extensively at many locations, data on changes of organic nitrogen forms in coal in response to this kind of geological instantaneous heating is still scarce. To fill this information gap, a total of five coal samples, including four coal samples collected along a coal transect...

Fifty-six coals along with host rocks of Permian age (including samples from the Shanxi Formation, Lower Shihezi Formation and Upper Shihezi Formation) collected from the active Xinjier mine in the Huainan Coalfield, north China were studied in the present work. The overall object of this study was to characterize the coal quality and elucidate the...

This study aims to investigate the pollution characteristics of road dust and their associated health risks of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) to humans using array-based risk assessment models described by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in a metropolitan area of Hefei, China. Geoaccumulation index (Igeo) was used to de...

The Huainan coalfield situated in the southern margin of North China Plate contains coal deposits of Carboniferous–Permian age. The 1 and 3 seams of the Early Permian Shanxi Formation and seams 4-1, 4-2, 5-1, 7-2 and 8 of the Late Early Permian Lower Shihezi Formation were analyzed for coal petrography, mineralogy and geochemical parameters. Collec...