Occurrence mode of major and trace elements in individual fly-ash particles

As the first stage of a research programme aimed at improving the efficiency of the electrostatic precipitators, PIXE and RES analyses using the Oxford Scanning Proton Microprobe have been carried out for about one hundred fly-ash particles collected at the inlet of the electrostatic precipitators of a coal-fired power plant. These show that particles can be grouped into several classes according to matrix composition and trace element composition.