Research Highlights

Fuel Comparison: Coal Only and Carpet Co-Fire

EPA, Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and Georgia Institute of Technology School of Chemical and Bio-Molecular Engineering, co-sponsored by Lehigh Cement Company and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), performed a collaborative test program on the feasibility of using cement kilns to destroy post-consumer carpet. Industry wants to use post-consumer carpet as a fuel to replace costly coal. The project objective is to conduct a feasibility test to determine the impact of carpet burning on kiln fouling, fuel economy, mechanical equipment operation, and stack emissions.

The source sampling program was designed to provide the stack emissions portion of the data necessary for the feasibility determination. Specifically, the following emissions determinations from the kiln were required: filterable particulate matter, condensable particulate matter, PM10 particulate matter, particle size distribution, HCl, HF-, HBr, Br-, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and 1990 Clean Air Act (CAA) metals (Sb, As, Ba, Be, Cd, Cr, Co, Pb, Mn, Hg, Ni, Se, Ag, Ti), dioxin/furans, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide. In addition, O₂ and CO₂ concentrations were required for stack gas molecular weight calculation. ARCADIS G&M was contracted by CRI to provide these data.

Lehigh Cement’s Evansville Plant operates two identical kilns using the Portland cement manufacturing process. Kiln #1 is 520 feet long and transitions from a 15 foot diameter to a 17 foot diameter in the taper section (from the 400 to 430 foot mark). It has six piers for support; the drive pier is Pier 4. The kiln can burn a mix of coal, natural gas, and alternative fuels (tires, wood, carpet) and has a capacity of 1900 short tons per day of clinker. A whole-tire mid-kiln injection system was installed at the 250 foot mark in the early 1990s. The kiln normally operates at production rate of approximately 1700 short tons per day. Source testing took place on the Kiln #1 Stack at Lehigh Cement’s Evansville Plant at 537 Evansville Road in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, 19522 on November 1-5 and 8-12, 2004.

See Also
Fuel Comparison: Coal Only and Carpet Co-Fire (PDF) (45 pp, 3.5 MB) (EPA/600/R-06/039) October 2006

Contact: Paul Lemieux

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Research Highlights

Fuel Comparison: Coal Only and Carpet Co-Fire

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