Atmospheric Environment 184 (2018) 1–8

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Atmospheric Environment
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/atmosenv

Emission characteristics of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs from gas-fired industrial T
boilers based on field measurements in Beijing city, China
Tao Yuea,b, Xiang Gaoa, Jiajia Gaob,∗, Yali Tongb, Kun Wangb, Penglai Zuob, Xiaoxi Zhangb,
Li Tongb, Chenlong Wangb, Yifeng Xuec
a
State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
b
Department of Air Pollution Control, Beijing Municipal Institute of Labour Protection, Beijing 100054, China
c
National Engineering Research Center of Urban Environmental Pollution Control, Beijing Municipal Research Institute of Environmental Protection, Beijing 100037, China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In the past decade, due to the management policies and coal combustion controls in Beijing, the consumption of
Gas-fired industrial boilers natural gas has increased gradually. Nevertheless, the research on the emission characteristics of gaseous pol-
Gaseous pollutants lutants emitted from gas-fired industrial boilers, especially considering the influence of low nitrogen (low-NOx)
Emission inventory retrofit policy of gas boilers, is scarcely. In this study, based on literature and field investigations, onsite mea-
Operating load
surements of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) emissions from gas-fired industrial boilers
Flue gas recirculation
as well as the key factors that affected the emission of gaseous pollutants were discussed. Category-specific
emission factors (EFs) of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs were obtained from the field measurements of 1107 “low-
NOx” retrofitted and unabated gas-fired industrial boilers. Our results showed that operating load and control
measures were the two key factors affecting the formation of gaseous pollutants. The EFs of NOx (EFNOx) and CO
(EFCO) of atmospheric combustion boilers (ACBs) were much higher than the EFs of chamber combustion boilers
(CCBs). The total emissions of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs from gas-fired industrial boilers in Beijing in the year of
2015 were estimated at 10489.6 t, 3272.8 t, 196.4 t and 235.4 t, respectively. Alkanes, BTEX, oxygenated VOCs
and non-reactive organic matter were the four main chemical components of VOCs. As for the spatial dis-
tributions, the emissions of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs from gas-fired industrial boilers in Beijing were pre-
dominantly concentrated in central six urban districts. In the future, more detailed investigation and field tests
for all kinds of gas-fired industrial boilers are still greatly needed to achieve more reliable estimations of at-
mospheric pollutants from gas-fired industrial boilers.

1. Introduction (Xue et al., 2017).

Nowadays, with the rapid development of economy and an increase
in primary energy consumption, Beijing is facing severe environmental
air pollution (Xue et al., 2016; Gao et al., 2018). Government has
committed to control air pollution and improve ambient air quality by
adjusting energy structure in recent years. With the implementation of
the Clean Air Action Plan of Beijing 2013–2017, the energy structure of
Beijing is continuously optimized. The application fields of natural gas
are increasingly expanding so as to the gas consumption increases ra-
pidly. In 2015, according to the gas development and planning from the
Beijing Gas Group Co. Ltd, the consumption of natural gas increased
from 6.1 billion m3 in 2008 to 14.6 billion m3, and more than 78% of
natural gas was used for heating and power generation (BMCCM,
2017). In addition, the capacity and amount of gas-fired industrial
boilers both accounted for more than 85% of the total industrial boilers
Compared to coal, the particulate matter (PM) and SO2 emissions
from natural gas combustion are less. However, NOx is considered to be
the most significant gaseous pollutant emitted from natural gas com-
bustion (Simmons and Seakins, 2012; Zhang et al., 2016). NO and NO2
are the main components produced from gas combustion. When NO and
NO2 are discharged into the atmosphere, nitric acid fog and nitrate are
generated through a series of physicochemical reactions. Under sun-
light, nitrate combines with hydrocarbons and ozone to produce pho-
tochemical smog, which has a great impact on the atmospheric en-
vironment and human health (Wu et al., 2010; Li et al., 2015; Feng
et al., 2016). In 2016, the gas used in heating accounted for more than
30% in Beijing, and the gas-fired industrial boiler has been an im-
portant stationary source of NOx emission in Beijing (Yan et al., 2017).
Nevertheless, the understanding of the emission characteristics of gas-
fired industrial boiler is limited. Considering the emission

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jiajia11757@126.com (J. Gao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2018.04.022
Received 2 February 2018; Received in revised form 11 April 2018; Accepted 13 April 2018
Available online 17 April 2018
1352-2310/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
T. Yue et al. Atmospheric Environment 184 (2018) 1–8

characteristics of gas-fired boiler, some studies have mainly focused on
the NOx emission based on the field measurements (England et al.,
2001; Pulles and Heslinga, 2004; Wang et al., 2016; Xue et al., 2017).
Wang et al. (2016) presented the status of NOx emissions of district
central heating gas boilers in Beijing by measuring eighty-five gas
boilers. Xue et al. (2017) established a NOx emission inventory in
Beijing based on the field measurements of five gas-fired industrial
boilers. However, limited largely and systematically field measured
data have been obtained to study the category-specific emission factors
(EFs) of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs for different types of gas-fired in-
dustrial boilers, which is essential for the estimation of accurate emis-
sions and spatial variation of gaseous pollutants from gas-fired in-
dustrial boiler.
Furthermore, according to the revised Emission Standard of Air
Pollutants for Boilers in Beijing (BMEPB, 2015), the NOx emission of
the new built boilers must be lower than 30 mg/m3 since April 1, 2017.
Simultaneously, for the retrofitted boilers, the emission standard of
NOx has dropped from 150 mg/m3 to 80 mg/m3. In order to ensure the
implementation of this revised standard and encourage the low ni-
trogen (low-NOx) retrofit of existing gas (oil) boilers, Beijing municipal
government proposed a Regulation of the Beijing Municipal Reward
Replaces Subsidy for the Gas (oil) Boiler Low-NOx Retrofit in June 4,
2016 (BMEPB, 2016). Although there are no emissions standards of CO,
NH3 and VOCs for boilers at present, NH3 and VOCs are the precursor of
PM2.5 secondary transformation. Additionally, CO, NH3 and VOCs are
the essential gaseous pollutants that should be considered in the am-
bient air quality model. Thus, with the increase in the number and
capacity of gas-fired industrial boilers, the emission of CO, NH3 and
VOCs should be pay more attention.
However, seldom studies have been focused on the changes of the
emission characteristics after the implementation of revised emission
standard and relevant administration policies for the low-NOx retrofit
of gas-fired industrial boilers. In the present study, we focused on in-
vestigating the emission characteristics of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs
emitted before and after the implementation of low nitrogen reforming
policy of gas-fired boilers. The key factor that affected the emission of
gaseous pollutants were also discussed. Category-specific EFs of NOx,
CO, NH3 and VOCs were obtained based on field measurements for
1107 low-NOx retrofitted and unabated gas-fired industrial boilers. The
high spatial resolution of gaseous pollutant emission inventories
(3 km × 3 km) were established and analyzed based on detailed in-
formation from gas-fired industrial boilers, including boiler position,
boiler type, operating load, combustion mode, installed capacity, etc.
Monte Carlo simulation was applied to calculate the uncertainty.
2.2. Activity data
The natural gas consumption was obtained from the China
Statistical Yearbook (NBSPRC, 2016), Beijing Statistical Yearbook
(BMBS, 2016) and other related references (Xue et al., 2017; Yan et al.,
2017). A database containing detailed information of 12266 gas-fired
industrial boilers with a gross capacity of 39705 t/h was established at
the unit level. The detailed information included the geographic loca-
tion, operating load, combustion mode, installed capacity, annual nat-
ural gas consumption, control technologies and pollutants concentra-
tion in the flue gas for each unit. Therein, combustion mode covered
atmospheric combustion (AC) and chamber combustion (CC), and CC
was subdivided into direct-combustion machine (CCM), horizontal in-
ternal-combustion (HIC) and others. Moreover, the majority capacity of
the gas-fired industrial boilers is below 10 t/h, which account for more
than 90% of the total amount. In terms of combustion mode, more than
80% of gas-fired industrial boilers is CC mode. The gas-fired industrial
boilers in this database accounted for 77.5% of the total gas-fired in-
dustrial boilers in Beijing, which could be well represent the status of
gas-fired industrial boilers in Beijing.
The geographic locations of gas-fired industrial boilers are pre-
sented in Fig. 1. As can be seen that gas-fired industrial boilers are
mainly distributed in central six urban districts, namely Chaoyang,
Dongcheng, Fengtai, Haidian, Shijingshan, and Xicheng district. It is
related to the substitution of coal-fired boilers with gas-fired industrial
boilers in urban district. Gas-fired industrial boilers are mainly used for
heating and living in Beijing central urban district due to the high po-
pulation density (Yan et al., 2017).
2.3. Field measurements
To investigate the actual EFs of gaseous pollutants (NOx, CO, NH3,
VOCs) from gas-fired industrial boiler, 1107 boilers were tested and
analyzed (Table 1). It included 862 unabated gas-fired industrial boilers
and 245 gas-fired industrial boilers with low NOx combustion techni-
ques. Among these of 862 unabated gas-fired industrial boilers, there
were 281 AC boilers and 581 CC boilers. While CC boilers accounted for
the majority part of the 245 gas-fired industrial boilers. In the field
measurements, operating load were controlled to above 75% to reflect
the real emission level of gaseous pollutants emitted from gas-fired
industrial boilers (Yan et al., 2017).
To clarify the influence of operating load and control measures on
gaseous pollutants emission (NOx, CO, SO2), the gaseous pollutants

2. Data and methods

2.1. Study domain

Beijing, the capital city of China, is located in the Northern part of

the North China Plain (39°54′ N, 116°23′E) covered a total area of
16,410.54 km2 with 16 administrative districts. It is surrounded by the
Taihang and Yanshan Mountains to the west, north and northeast. As
the center of politics and culture of China, the population has already
exceeded 21.7 million in 2016 (BMBS, 2016). With the rapid economic
development, population expansion and urbanization, Beijing has ex-
perienced an ever-increasing energy consumption and the sharp in-
crease of emissions of massive pollutants to the environment. In order
to mitigate air pollution and improve air quality, Beijing municipal
government has adopted numerous measures to reduce atmospheric
pollutants emissions in recent years (He et al., 2014; Xue et al., 2016).
In 2016, Beijing municipal government encouraged natural gas-fired
industrial boilers to achieve low NOx combustion by equipping low
NOx burners (LNBs) or post-combustion abatement techniques.
Fig. 1. Geographical locations of gas-fired industrial boilers in Beijing.

2
T. Yue et al.
Table 1
Summery of gas-fired industrial boilers in field measurements.
Category Combustion mode
Without low NOx Atmospheric – 281
combustion combustion (AC)
techniques Chamber Direct-combustion
combustion (CC) machine (CCM)
Horizontal internal
combustion (HIC)
Other modes
With low NOx combustion techniques
Total number of gas-fired industrial boilers on field measurements
concentrations in the flue gas of a typical 1.4 MW gas-fired industrial
boiler (WNS1.4–0.7/95/70-Q) equipped with a LNB and Flue Gas
Recirculation (FGR) were detected at different operating load (46%,
60%, 73%, 90%, 95%) and variable amount of FGR, respectively.
The flue gas analyzer (Testo 350, TESTO, Germany) was used to
analyze the O2 content, flue gas temperature, flue gas velocity, and the
concentration of NOx, SO2 and CO at the outlet of the gas-fired in-
dustrial boilers according to the corresponding standard methods
(MEPPRC, 2014; 2000; 2007). Portable Fourier infrared flue gas ana-
lyzer (DX4000, GASMET, Finland) was used to analyze the concentra-
tion of NH3 according to the corresponding detection methods
(MEPPRC, 2007). In order to investigate VOCs, flue gas samples were
put in polyvinyl fluorite (PVF) bags by vacuum chamber (Laoying 2081,
LAOYING, China) then back to the laboratory. The VOCs was de-
termined following the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-
MS) method (MEPPRC, 2007). Atmospheric pressure was measured by
an atmospheric pressure gauge (Testo 511, Testo, USA). For quality
assurance and control, the gas analyzers were calibrated with zero gas
and targeted standard gases (NO, NO2, CO, and O2) before the first test
of the day. The duration of each sampling was determined by relevant
standards and specifications.
2.4. Emission factors
The category-specific EFs of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs were calcu-
lated according to field measurements based on the following formula:
EFi, j = (Ci, j × Qi, j × 10−3)/(4 × Si, j )
Where the subscripts i, j represents the specific pollutant NOx, CO, NH3
and VOCs and combustion mode, separately; EFi, j is the emission factor
for pollutant i and combustion mode j, g/m3; C is the emission con-
centration of pollutants in the flue gas, mg/m3; Q is the flue gas volume,
m3/h; S is the feeding rate of natural gas, Nm3/h.
2.5. Emission inventory
Typically, the gas-fired industrial boiler is treated as the stationary
source. Annual emissions of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs from gas-fired
industrial boilers in Beijing were calculated using the Emission factor
method. The method for the bottom-up emission inventory of NOx, CO,
NH3 and VOCs can be expressed using the following basic formula:
Ei = ∑ EFi,j × Aj × 10−6
j (2)
Where the subscripts i represents the specific pollutant, namely NOx,
CO, NH3 and VOCs; j represents the combustion mode; Ei is the emis-
sions of specific pollutant i, t; EFij is the emission factor of pollutant i
and combustion mode j calculated based on formula (1), g/m3; Aj is the
natural gas consumption, m3.
Atmospheric Environment 184 (2018) 1–8
2.6. Uncertainty analysis
Numbers In order to know the uncertainties of the inventory, Monte Carlo
simulation analysis is conducted to quantify the uncertainties of NOx,
CO, NH3 and VOCs emissions from gas-fired industrial boilers. The
probability distributions of input parameters for activity levels and EFs
14
were determined based on the author's judgments or previous related
213 references (Zhao et al., 2011; Xue et al., 2017; Yan et al., 2017), which
could be seen in supplementary section (Table S1).
354
245
1107 3. Result and discussion
3.1. Influence factors of gaseous pollutants emitted from gas-fired industrial
boilers
Precious studies have reported that operating load and control
measures were the priority factors to affect the emission of gaseous
pollutants by regulating the O2 content, combustion temperature and
gas flow velocity during combustion process (Ma et al., 2016; Yan et al.,
2017). To clarify the role of above two factors during the main gaseous
pollutants emission, the pollutants outlet concentration, O2 content,
flue gas velocity and chamber temperature were detected by one gas-
fired industrial boiler with the capacity of 1.4 MW. Flue Gas Re-
circulation (FGR) technology as one of the main NOx emission controls
used in industrial boiler was discussed in this article.
3.1.1. The whole process analysis of gas-fired industrial boilers
The whole process of gas-fired industrial boiler covers the start to
the stable operation process. Analyzing the whole process can help
clarify the real emissions of gaseous pollutants. When the operating
load is more than 90%, the chamber temperature is high, which facil-
itates the formulation of thermal-NOx. The FGR system also works well
under high operating load. Therefore, we set the whole process at op-
erating load of 95% with FGR and 90% without FGR, respectively, to
analyze the emission characteristics of NOx, CO and SO2, as shown in
Figs. 2–5. As the chamber temperature is quite difficult to detect, in this
article we assumed that the variation trend of flue gas temperature is
similar to that of the chamber temperature.
In terms of the gas-fired industrial boiler operated at 95% load with
FGR, the duration was about 140 s from the start to stable operation.
(1) 0–100 s was the purge stage when fresh air was inlet. Within this stage,
the flue gas O2 content was relatively high and gaseous pollutants
emitted from gas-fired industrial boiler were not detected. As shown in
Figs. 2 and 3, 100–140 s was the start stage when gaseous pollutants
emission and flue gas characteristics varied quickly. Generally, the NOx
emission from the combustion of gas-fired boilers is a group of nitrogen
monoxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). NO is the main component
Fig. 2. The variation of pollutants emission with run time at 95% operating
load and FGR.
3
T. Yue et al. Atmospheric Environment 184 (2018) 1–8

Fig. 4. The variation of O2 content, gas velocity and gas temperature with run
Fig. 3. The variation of O2 content, gas velocity and gas temperature with run
time at 95% operating load and without FGR.
time at 95% operating load and FGR.

accounting for more than 95% usually and is further oxidized to NO2 in
the atmosphere (Wei and Peng, 2016). The formation of NOx in gas-
fired boilers is complex and primarily due to the oxidation of nitrogen
in the air. Three main mechanisms are involved in, thermal mechanism
(Zeldovich mechanism), prompt mechanism (Fenimore mechanism)
and the N2O-intermediate mechanism (Miller and Bowman, 1989). The
NOx concentration firstly increased to 62.50 mg/m3 at 105 s in which
NO only accounted for a small proportion of NOx. It was mainly re-
sulted from the dominant generation of N2O-intermediates in the poor
fuel and low temperature combustion conditions. Simultaneously, the
NOx concentration further increased to 73.27 mg/m3 at 110 s, and then
dropped to 27.95 mg/m3 at 140 s with the prompt-NOx being pre-
dominant of NOx. During 105–125 s, the chamber temperature gradu-
ally increased and flue gas velocity decreased. The CO concentration
was ranged from 27.46 to 274.88 mg/m3, indicating the incomplete
combustion of natural gas. With the further increase of chamber tem-
perature and the flue gas amount of FGR, the CO concentration de- Fig. 5. The variation of pollutants emission with run time at 90% operating
creased to 5.59 mg/m3 and the flue gas velocity rose to 11.8 m/s at load and without FGR.
140 s.
The boiler reached stable combustion stage after 140 s when the flue
gas O2 content and velocity stabilized at about 4.89% and 13.1 m/s,
respectively. Meanwhile, the NOx concentration maintained at about
27.9 mg/m3 with the NO/NO2 volume ratio of 6, and the thermal-NOx
became the dominant component. The concentration of SO2 kept at a
relatively low level at < 2 mg/m3 and < 6 mg/m3 during the whole
operating process, respectively.
Furthermore, the gas-fired industrial boiler operated at 90% load
without FGR was investigated to do contrastive analysis, as presented in
Figs. 4 and 5. The results showed that the variation trend of gaseous
pollutants (NOx, CO, SO2) emission, the flue gas O2 content and velo-
city, and chamber temperature of the boiler operated at 90% load
without FGR were in line with that of the boiler operated at 95% load
with FGR. The duration was about 150 s from the start to stable op-
eration in terms of the gas-fired industrial boiler operated at 90% load
without FGR. The flue gas O2 content and velocity maintained at about
6.93% and 11.2 m/s after 150 s, respectively. While, the NOx con-
centration of the gas-fired industrial boiler without FGR was approxi- Fig. 6. Effect of operating load on pollutants emission without FGR.
mately 2.1 times of the gas-fired industrial boiler with FGR. The FGR
technology would be discussed later in this article.
were investigated with a capacity of 1.4 MW gas-fired industrial boiler
at 95%、90%、73%、60% and 46% operating load. The FGR was shut
3.1.2. Influence of operating load on the gaseous pollutants emission from up during the operation of the gas-fired industrial boiler. As shown in
gas-fired industrial boilers Fig. 6, the concentration of NOx and SO2 could meet the emission
Studies have investigated that operating load is quite significant to standard of gaseous pollutants for boilers in Beijing City (BMEPB,
the formation of NOx, SO2 and CO during combustion process (Ma 2015), and the CO concentration was maintained at a low level
et al., 2016). To clarify the influence of operating load, the gaseous (< 1 mg/m3) for the investigated operating load. The variation of flue
pollutants concentration, flue gas velocity and chamber temperature

4
T. Yue et al.
Fig. 7. Effect of operating load on O2 content, gas velocity and gas temperature
without FGR.
gas velocity and temperature were presented in Fig. 7. Flue gas velocity
increased as the operating load increased, and there was a relatively
sharp increase at 95% operating load. The flue gas temperature in-
creased in the whole process following the increase of operating load.
Typically, the thermal-NOx is the dominant component of the NOx
emitted from the gas-fired industrial boiler, therefore, the chamber
temperature is the critical factor for the thermal-NOx formation during
the natural gas combustion (Korpela et al., 2015; Yan et al., 2017). As
we assumed previously, the change of the flue gas temperature was
consistent with that of the chamber temperature. The NOx concentra-
tion increased from 55.3 to 61.8 mg/m3 when the operating load
changed from 46% to 73%, which could be attributed to the increase of
thermal-NOx at higher chamber temperature. Nevertheless, NOx con-
centration decreased to 59.1 mg/m3 at 90% operating load, which was
related to the decrease of chamber temperature. When the gas-fired
industrial boiler operated at 95% load, the flue gas velocity increased to
12.9 m/s rapidly, which could be the reason of the slight decrease of
NOx concentration even although the chamber temperature increased
as well. The relatively high flue gas velocity reflected that the gas flow
retention time in the chamber was too short to form more thermal-NOx.
3.1.3. Influence of Flue Gas Recirculation on the gaseous pollutants emitted
from gas-fired industrial boilers
Flue Gas Recirculation (FGR) technology is an important low NOx
combustion technology, which is widely used in NOx emission control
of gas-fired industrial boilers. The FGR technology reduces NOx emis-
sion in the flue gas by returning a part of the flue gas into the com-
bustion zone. As the temperature and O2 content of the returning flue
gas is relatively low, the FGR technology can decrease the chamber
temperature and O2 concentration in the combustion zone, and then
inhibit the formation of thermal-NOx. The flue gas amount of FGR was
expressed by Flue Gas Recirculation Rate (FGRR), which was namely
the ratio of the amount of flue gas used for recirculation to the total
amount of flue gas without recirculation.
To study the effect of FGR, the relationship between gaseous pol-
lutants outlet concentration and FGRR was investigated with a capacity
of 1.4 MW boiler at operating load of 95%, 90%, 73%. As shown in
Fig. 8, when boiler operated at relatively low load (< 70% operating
load), combustion became unstable as the FGRR varied, so the oper-
ating load < 70% was not considered in this article. The results showed
that the NOx concentration decreased when the FGRR increased for all
investigated operating load, whereas the SO2 and CO concentration was
not varied considerably and maintained at a relatively low level. In
addition, there was no obvious variation of the flue gas temperature
and velocity as the FGRR increased. The O2 content of the flue gas
decreased with the increased of the FGRR, which indicated that oxygen
5
Atmospheric Environment 184 (2018) 1–8
in the original flue gas was further consumed through recirculation.
In conclusion, operating load and control measures are the two
important factors to affect the formulation of gaseous pollutants of gas-
fired industrial boilers. With the increasing of operating load, the
chamber temperature increased, which promoted the formulation of
thermal-NOx. Nevertheless, when the operating load was close to
100%, the formation of NOx was mainly manipulated by velocity of fuel
gas. The FGR technology can decrease the chamber temperature and O2
concentration in the combustion zone, and then inhibit the formation of
thermal-NOx.
3.2. Category-specific emission factors of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs based
on field measurements
The EFs of NOx and CO, obtained from the filed measurements of
1107 gas-fired industrial boilers, were presented in Fig.S2 and sum-
marized in Table 2. As can be seen, all the EFNOx of gas-fired industrial
boilers were fitting to normal distribution curve. For the gas-fired in-
dustrial boilers without low-NOx combustion techniques, EFNOx and
EFCO of ACBs were 3.08 and 0.54 g/m3, which were about 2.2 and 1.2
times higher than the EFs of CCBs, respectively. It indicated that
combustion mode was the significant factor affecting the formation of
gaseous pollutants. While, for CCBs, the EFNOx with CCMs, HICs and
OMs were 1.41, 1.43 and 1.34 g/m3, respectively. The EFCO with CCMs,
HICs and OMs were both 0.44 g/m3. It revealed that the boiler type was
not the crucial factor affecting the EFNOx and EFCO. In addition, EFNOx
and EFCO of gas-fired industrial boilers with low-NOx combustion
techniques have also be given in our study. For retrofitted boilers with
NOx emissions of 80 mg/m3, the EFNOx and EFCO were 0.59 and 0.15 g/
m3. For new or retrofitted boilers with NOx emissions of 30 mg/m3, the
EFNOx and EFCO were 0.25 and 0.11 g/m3. By comparison with gas-fired
industrial boilers without low-NOx combustion techniques, the EFNOx
and EFCO with low-NOx combustion techniques were lowest. It sug-
gested that application of advanced pollution control technologies and
strict emission standards can significantly reduce the pollutants emis-
sion.
So far, there are few studies about NH3 and VOCs emissions from
gas-fired industrial boilers. In this study, the EFs of NH3 and VOCs were
also given by the field measurements of 20 gas-fired industrial boilers.
Due to limited testing data, only the average of EFNH3 and EFVOCs from
the retrofitted CCBs with low-NOx combustion techniques were given
in Table 2. The average EFs of NH3 and VOCs were 0.032 and 0.038 g/
m3, respectively.
Moreover, as depicted in Table S1, multiple EFs of gas-fired in-
dustrial boilers from various locations were carried out during the past
few years. Because the ACBs were absent or phased out gradually, in
our present study, the EFs of CCBs were selected and compared with
other research. EFNOx and EFCO in present study were lower than the
emission levels of AP-42 (EPA, 2018), Pulles and Heslinga (2004) and
Xue et al. (2017). Whereas in the present study, the EFNOx and EFCO
were almost on the same level in comparison to those observed in Yan
et al. (2017) research. In the study of Yan et al. (2017), EFs of gas-fired
industrial boilers with two combustion modes and three boiler types
were displayed based on field test. However, low-NOx retrofitted policy
was not considered in Yan's study. Presently, Beijing has adopted to
numerous environmental policies to control and improve air quality.
The adjustment of energy structure and the application of advanced
pollution control technology will affect the emission of pollutants.
Thus, in order to obtain more accurate emission characteristics of gas-
fired industrial boilers, a set of systematic and integrated EFs for var-
ious pollutants compiled for numerous low-NOx retrofitted gas-fired
industrial boilers for Beijing is very essential.
3.3. Chemical species of VOCs from gas-fired industrial boilers
During our sampling periods, the concentrations of VOCs were
T. Yue et al. Atmospheric Environment 184 (2018) 1–8

Fig. 8. The relationship between concentration of gaseous pollutants and FGRR.

Table 2
Emission factors of NOx from gas-fired industrial boilers in Beijing.
Category Combustion mode EF (g/m3)

NOx CO NH3 VOCs

Without low NOx combustion technique Atmospheric combustion boilers (ACBs) 3.08 0.54 0.032 0.038
Chamber combustion boilers (CCBs) Direct-combustion machine (CCM) 1.41 0.44
Horizontal internal combustion (HIC) 1.43 0.44
Other modes (OM) 1.34 0.44
With low NOx combustion boilers (LNBs), with the goal of CNOx < 30 mg/m3 0.25 0.11
With low NOx combustion boilers (LNBs), with the goal of CNOx < 80 mg/m3 0.59 0.15

Table 3 3.4. Emission inventory of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs from gas-fired
Regional emissions of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs from gas-fired industrial boilers industrial boilers in 2015
in Beijing in 2015.
Districts NOX (t) CO (t) NH3 (t) VOC (t) According to the category-specific EFs of pollutants in this study and
the consumption of natural gas, the emissions of NOx, CO, NH3 and
Chaoyang 2503.7 775.8 46.5 55.8 VOCs from gas-fired industrial boilers from Beijing in the year of 2015
Dongcheng 641.0 194.2 11.6 13.9
were estimated. The total emissions were estimated at 10489.6 t of
Fengtai 910.1 288.0 17.3 20.7
Haidian 2624.0 811.8 48.7 58.3 NOx, 3272.8 t of CO, 196.4 t of NH3 and 235.4 t of VOCs, respectively.
Shijingshan 117.5 36.9 2.2 2.7 Additionally, the NOx emissions of gas-fired industrial boilers ac-
Xicheng 498.6 152.7 9.1 10.9 counted for 7.6% of total emissions from Beijing in 2015, which was
Changping 554.7 174.3 10.5 12.5 obtained from the Beijing Environmental Statement 2015 (BMEPB,
Daxing 1029.9 329.2 19.8 23.7
Fangshan 409.1 129.7 7.8 9.4
2015). In comparison, the emissions of NOx from gas-fired boilers in
Huairou 116.4 36.9 2.2 2.7 Beijing in the year 2014 were 1.1 times higher than in our research
Mentougou 6.7 2.1 0.1 0.2 (Yan et al., 2017). Due to the application of strict emission standards
Miyun 119.3 39.0 2.4 2.8 and reward policy of low nitrogen (low-NOx) retrofit of existing gas
Pinggu 50.4 16.1 1.0 1.2
(oil) boilers, some advanced pollution control technologies were used,
Shunyi 239.4 74.1 4.5 5.3
Tongzhou 658.7 208.6 12.5 15.0 which could significantly reduce the pollutants emission.
Yanqing 10.0 3.2 0.2 0.2 Furthermore, the spatial distributions of emissions from gas-fired
Total 10489.6 3272.8 196.4 235.4 industrial boilers were closely related to the levels of economic devel-
opment and industrial production, the supplies of energy, the demands
of winter concentrated heating, and populations in the sixteen districts
ranged from 1.48 to 2.18 mg/m3. The detected chemical species of of Beijing. Table 3 illustrated the spatial emissions of NOx, CO, NH3 and
VOCs included alkanes, BTEX (benzene, toluene, and xylene), oxyge- VOCs from gas-fired industrial boilers. The emission inventory was
nated VOCs (methanol, acetaldehyde and other higher aldehydes) and spatially allocated into 3 km × 3 km grid cells, as showed in Fig. 9. As
non-reactive organic matter. The total concentrations of these four can be seen, the emissions of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs from gas-fired
patterns of VOCs accounted for 72%, 6%, 4%, and 18%, respectively. industrial boilers in Beijing were predominantly concentrated in central
Alkanes was the major species in VOCs. As for BTEX, it was the typical six urban districts, which accounting for 68.9–69.5% of the total
anthropogenic emitted organics in the atmosphere, which not only emissions. It was due to the large number of gas-fired industrial boilers
endanger human health but also actively participate in photochemical and the dense population in central urban districts. Haidian rank as the
reactions, generating O3 and secondary organic aerosols. As illustrated first district with NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs emissions, with the average
in Fig.S1, BTEX and Oxygenated VOCs accounted for 14% and 19% of largest proportion of 24.9% for the total emission. Chaoyang and
VOCs from EPA SMOKE Model, which were substantially higher than Fengtai districts are next after that. Correspondingly, due to the geo-
the data from our research. However, in our study, Non-reactive or- graphic conditions of rural areas that seriously hindered the installation
ganic matter has a high proportion of 18%, reflecting a higher level of natural gas pipelines, the consumption of natural gas and the emis-
than the EPA SMOKE Model data. sions of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs were lower than in rural areas than
that in central six urban districts of Beijing.

6
T. Yue et al.
Fig. 9. Spatial distribution characteristics of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs from gas-fired industrial boilers in Beijing.
Several factors influence the estimation of the emissions of pollu-
tants, including activity levels and emission factors. To better under-
stand the uncertainties of our inventory, Monte Carlo simulation was
used to quantify the uncertainties of pollutants emissions from gas-fired
industrial boilers. Table S2 illustrated the uncertainties (95% con-
fidence interval around the arithmetic mean value) in Beijing atmo-
spheric emissions of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs from gas-fired industrial
boilers in 2015. As Table S2 shown, NH3 and VOCs were demonstrated
to have the highest uncertainties of (−26.3–47.8%) and
(−54.1–54.5%), respectively. These high uncertainties mainly resulted
from inadequate field tests data for Beijing gas-fired industrial boilers
combustion processes. In comparison, NOx and CO show relatively low
uncertainties, because these pollutants were the dominant pollutants
emitted from the combustion processes of gas-fired industrial boilers
and there were many field tests to measure the actual emission level of
these pollutants. Thus, more detailed investigation and field tests for all
kinds of gas-fired industrial boilers are still very necessary for a better
understanding of the emissions of these atmospheric pollutants in the
future, especially for toxic VOCs.
4. Conclusion
In this paper, based on abundant and systematic field measure-
ments, we have established a comprehensive emission inventory of
NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs from gas-fired industrial boilers in Beijing in
the year of 2015. Two influence factors, operating load and control
measures, were discussed to clarify the effects on gaseous pollutants
emissions (NOx, CO, SO2). The total emissions of NOx, CO, NH3 and
VOCs from gas-fired industrial boilers in Beijing were estimated at
7
Atmospheric Environment 184 (2018) 1–8
10489.6 t, 3272.8 t, 196.4 t and 235.4 t, respectively. The NOx emis-
sions of gas-fired industrial boilers accounted for 7.6% of total emis-
sions from Beijing in the year of 2015. Alkanes, BTEX (benzene, to-
luene, and xylene), oxygenated VOCs (methanol, acetaldehyde and
other higher aldehydes) and non-reactive organic matter were the four
main chemical components of VOCs. As for the spatial distributions, the
emissions of NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs from gas-fired industrial boilers
in Beijing were predominantly concentrated in central six urban dis-
tricts, which accounting for 68.9–69.5% of the total emissions. Haidian
rank as the first district with NOx, CO, NH3 and VOCs emissions.
Due to inadequate field tests data, the inventory of NH3 and VOCs
from gas-fired industrial boilers have relatively higher uncertainties of
(−26.3–47.8%) and (−54.1–54.5%), respectively. In the future, in
order to achieve more reliable estimations of atmospheric pollutants
from gas-fired industrial boilers in China, especially for toxic VOCs,
more detailed investigation and field tests for all kinds of gas-fired in-
dustrial boilers are still greatly needed.
Acknowledge
This work was supported by the National Key Research and
Development Program of China (2016YFC0208103), the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (21607008), the Youth Core Plan
(YC201808, YC201810), the Building of Innovation Team Plan
(IG201804N), and the Green Shoots Plan (2017–02). We also thank the
editors and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and
suggestions on our paper.
T. Yue et al.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data related to this article can be found at http://dx.
doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2018.04.022.
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