Domestic lignite combustion as source of polychlorodibenzodioxins and -furans (PCDD/F)

Investigations of emissions of PCDD/F from lignite domestic heating were performed. The measurements were carried out on a common house-heating facility fired with lignite briquettes, that was designed for sampling of the flue gases to determine the emissions of PCDD/F. Two sorts of lignite briquettes were investigated: “salt” coal briquettes from the former open cast mine Merseburg-Ost (chlorine content: 2000 ppm w/w) which belonged to the preferred fuels in the GDR and “normal” coal briquettes from the open cast mine Profen (chlorine content: 300 ppm w/w) which have been widely used in the eastern part of Germany. It is shown that the PCDD/F concentrations of the flue gases of the “salt” coal combustion are about 7-fold higher than the corresponding values of the “normal” coal. The patterns of the congeners and the homologue profiles are nearly the same. An estimation of the dynamic development of the PCDD/F-input caused by lignite domestic heating in the “new” German states is given.