Review on the fate of antimony and its emission control technologies during coal combustion

Antimony is a trace element with potential toxicity. As a major source of atmospheric antimony pollution in China, the fate of antimony released during coal combustion has been attracting increasing concern. In this study, the contents and occurrence modes of antimony in coals were summarized, with subsequent discussions on the vaporization and transformation behavior of antimony in the coal combustion process. The partitioning of antimony in bottom ash, size-segregated fly ash particles as well as flue gas were also presented. Regarding the potential control methods for antimony emission, technologies facing pre-combustion, combustion and post-combustion stages were proposed respectively. It aims to provide a guideline for understanding the behavior of antimony migration and emission control during coal combustion.