Energy recovery from waste solvent

Some relatively pure liquids recovered from the environment can be distilled or rereflned and reused. For example, petroleum products recovered from some waste sludge by thermal desorption or waste oils collected from automobiles can be rerefined to make a usable product. The potential to recover usable product from material spilled into the environment can be limited, however. Once spilled, a solvent or petroleum product begins to change physically and chemically. The liquid can become contaminated with water, dirt, or other substances. After some time, chemical and biochemical reactions will alter the chemical composition of the material. Further, the volume recovered from spill cleanup may be relatively small and a rereflning facility may not be located nearby. As a result, it may be more feasible simply to ship the waste for energy recovery. 

The earlier plants operated at deficit, and needed an auxiliary boiler, which was integrated in the flue gas duct. Auxiliary burners in tunnels or flue gas duet were additionally used in some instances. This situation was partially caused by inadequate waste heat recovery and low efficiency in some energy consumers. Typically, the furnace flue gas was discharged in the stack at rather high temperature because there was no air preheating and too much of the reaction heat in the synthesis loop was rejected to the cooling media (water or air). In addition, efficiency of the mechanical drivers was low and the heat demand for regenerating the solvent from the C02 removal unit (at... 

Recycling the recovery of scrap metal and solvents and the use of distil lation residues as a fuel for cement are all recycling initiatives. However, the report does not suggest that Solutia UK is actively seeking to reuse waste streams from either its own or from other companies processes in order to reduce raw material and energy usage. 

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