TP91-12: Comparison of Cooling Tower Mineral Mass Emissions by Isokinetic EPA Method 13A and Heated Cascade Impactor Tests

Separate isokinetic EPA Method 13A and heated impactor tests were performed on one cell of each of three (3) cooling towers in an industrial facility during November of 1989. The purpose of the EPA Method 13A tests were to measure the rate of total mineral mass emissions. The heated cascade impactor isokinetic tests were performed to characterize the sizes of the mineral particulate emissions less than 1 o micron in diameter (PM10) after the water had evaporated from the drift droplets. The particle size characterization was performed by passing the wet sample stream through a heated quartz tube to dry the drift droplets followed by separating the particles by size using an Anderson Mark 111™ cascade impactor. The tests were performed within days of each other under similar operating and environmental conditions. The two test methods yielded similar measurements of total mineral emission rates.