The iron ore sintering process is
a major source of unintentional
persistent organic pollutants (UP-POPs). Although challenging, it
is important to develop effective and economical methods suitable
for practical application to control these highly toxic pollutants.
In this study, three novel N/S-based macromolecular compounds, i.e.,
urea-formaldehyde resin (UFR), thiosemicarbazone-formaldehyde resin
(TSCFR), and thiourea-formaldehyde resin (TUFR), were synthesized
and investigated for their inhibitory effects on chlorinated benzene
(CBz), polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin/dibenzofuran (PCDD/F) formation in iron sintering
fly ash. TUFR exhibited the highest inhibitory efficiency among the
three inhibitors for CBzs (97.6%), PCBs (97.1%), and international
toxic equivalent quantity PCDD/Fs (99.9%) with 2.0 wt % addition.
Variation of UP-POP homolog profiles indicated that the reaction of
N and Cl mainly occurs in the gas phase, while S acts mainly in the
solid phase during the inhibition process. The gas–solid phase
homolog distribution of UP-POPs indicates that sulfur compounds were
the dominant inhibitor and were easily reacted with copper chloride,
which was confirmed by density functional theory calculations. TUFR
showed 46.9% CBz, 82.9% PCB, and 58.8% PCDD/F reduction efficiencies
in a pilot-scale sintering system, indicating that TUFR is an appropriate
technique for reducing UP-POP emissions in a full-scale iron ore sintering
process.