The determination of the content of ecotoxic elements directly in flue gas is important for determining its actual emission from coal combustion. Moreover, in the BAT for large combustion plants conclusions adopted in 2017, apart from tightening of pollutants emission standards, i.e. SO 2, NO x and dusts, and setting emission limits, among others, for mercury, the monitoring of the actual emission of toxic elements has been established with the use of specific analytical methods. The review and comparison of available methods of analyzing the content of elements in flue gases in accordance with American and European standards has been presented in the article. Moreover, the factors influencing the quality of the obtained measurement results were identified.
The analysis of leaching behavior of harmful substances, such as arsenic, is one of the parameters of risk assessment resulting from the storage or economic use of coal waste. The leachability depends both on the environmental conditions of the storage area as well as on the properties of the waste material itself. There are a number of leaching tests that allow to model specific conditions or measure the specific properties of the leaching process. The conducted research aimed at comparing two methods with different application assumptions. The study of arsenic leaching from waste from the hard coal enrichment process was carried out in accordance with the Polish PN-EN 12457 standard and the US TCLP procedure. The leaching results obtained with both methods did not exceed the limit values of this parameter, defined in the Polish law. Both methods were also characterized by the good repeatability of the results. The use of an acetic acid solution (TCLP method) resulted in three times higher arsenic leaching from the examined waste compared to the use of deionized water as a leaching fluid (method PN-EN 12457). Therefore, the use of organic acid tests for mining waste intended for storage with municipal waste should be considered, as the results of the basic test based on clean water leaching may be inadequate to the actual leaching of arsenic under such environmental conditions.