Incineration pesticide wastes

There are both technical and institutional problems, however, in using most of these processes for waste incineration. While the potential for obtaining low cost energy does exist, there seems to be very limited potential for the use of most of these facilities for incinerating pesticide wastes. 

The increasing concerns of the public and the need for monitoring very low concentrations of toxic compounds means that detection at levels below ig kg-1 are required in many areas of analysis. Pesticides in the food chain, toxic materials in incineration and waste products and traces of nitro-compounds in finger washings of a person suspected of handling explosives, all involve analysis for low concentrations. 

While much of this work has addressed the destruction of pesticides as such, most current activity is concerned with the more general problem of hazardous waste incineration. The following discussion summarizes some of the key studies that have dealt specifically with the incineration of pesticides and pesticide wastes, as well as hazardous waste incineration in general. 

While earlier studies addressed the incineration of pesticides and pesticide wastes as such, most current efforts are focused on the general area of hazardous waste, as defined by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976. This ongoing work is directly related to pesticide disposal, however, as pesticide waste is included in the category of RCRA hazardous waste. In fact, the presence of pesticides is a major consideration in a waste being designated as hazardous. 

The pesticide industry generates many concentrated wastes that are considered hazardous wastes. These wastes must be detoxified, pretreated, or disposed of safely in approved facilities. Incineration is a common waste destruction method. Deep well injection is a common disposal method. Other technologies such as wet air oxidation, solvent extraction, molten-salt combustion, and microwave plasma destmction have been investigated for pesticide waste applications. 

The USEPA surveys identified at least 14 pesticide plants using incineration for flows ranging up to 39,000 gal/day and heat capacities up to 77 million Btu/hour [7]. Many incinerators are devoted entirely for the destruction of pesticide wastes, but in some cases, only a small part of the capacity is devoted for this purpose. 

Oberacker, D.A. Incineration options for disposal of waste pesticides. In Pesticide Waste Disposal Technology Bridges, J.S., Dempsey, C.R., Eds. Noyes Data Corporation Park Ridge, NJ, 1988. Eckenfelder, W.W., Jr. Industrial Water Pollution Control, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill New York, 1989. McNally, R. Tougher rules challenge future for injection wells. Petrol. Eng. Int. 1987, July, 28-30. Zimpro, Inc. Report on Wet Air Oxidation for Pesticide Chemical Manufacturing Wastes, prepared for G. M. Jett, USEPA Rothchild Wisconsin, 1980. 

Dioxins are some of the most toxic chemicals known to science. Dioxins are unwanted by products of a wide range of manufacturing processes including smelting, chlorine bleaching of paper pulp, and the manufacturing of some herbicides and pesticides. In terms of dioxin release into the environment, waste incinerators (solid waste and hospital waste) are often the worst culprits, due to incomplete burning [115]. One of the most toxic chemical in the class is 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-/ /Y/-dioxin (TCDD) and probably the most toxic compound ever synthesized by man. 

Sometimes pesticide wastes can be disposed of in a landfill operating under EPA, State, tribal, or local permit for hazardous wastes. Most sanitary landfills are not suitable. Some regions have pesticide incinerators for disposing of pesticide wastes. Never bum, bury, or dump excess pesticides, and never dispose of them in a way that will contaminate public or private ground water or surface water or sewage treatment facihties. 

Waste in transportation pipeline related pits Caustic or acid cleaners Boiler cleaning wastes Boiler refractory bricks Boiler scrubber fluids, sludges, and ash Incinerator ash Laboratory wastes Sanitary wastes Pesticide wastes Radioactive tracer wastes Drums, insulation, and miscellaneous solids... 

Combustion in an incinerator is the only practical way to deal with many waste streams.This is particularly true of solid and concentrated wastes and toxic wastes such as those containing halogenated hydrocarbons, pesticides, herbicides, etc. Many of the toxic substances encountered resist biological degradation and persist in the natural environment for a long period of time. Unless they are in dilute aqueous solution, the most effective treatment is usually incineration. 

The level of natural versus man-made emissions to the environment are of a similar magnitude. SoH erosion is the major contributor of natural emissions with zinc mining, zinc production facHities, iron and steel production, corrosion of galvanized stmctures, coal and fuel combustion, waste disposal and incineration, and the use of zinc fertilizers and pesticides being the principal anthropogenic contributors. 

Baird is the 20-acre site of a former chemical mixing and batching company. Poor waste disposal practices resulted in the contamination of groundwater, soil, the municipal water supply, and a brook adjacent to the site. Over one hundred contaminants, including chlorinated and nonchlorinated volatile organics, heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, and dioxins, had been identified in site soil and groundwater. Remediation activities included soil excavation and incineration, and groundwater treatment (the audit focused on the soil excavation and incineration... 

Chlorinated compounds PCP, PCBs, PCDD/Fs Manufacture of pesticide and herbicide (D) Wood preservation sites (P) Pulp and paper production (P) Municipal waste incineration (P,D) Plastics, fire-retardants manufacture (P,D) Chlorinated phenols -3.6 Chlorinated hydrocarbons - 2.4 [43, 44]... 

In 1974, federally recommended procedures were published under authority of the 1972 amendments of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) that addressed pesticide disposal (2). These recommendations identified an incinerator operating at 1000°C (1832°F) with 2-s retention time in the combustion zone as acceptable for destruction of organic pesticides. Other incinerators, such as those for municipal solid waste capable of effecting complete pesticide destruction, are also acceptable. During this same time frame, i.e., from the early 1970s to date, a number of research and demonstration studies have been conducted involving pesticide incineration. Most of these concern either the identification of incinerator... 

Most of the ongoing activity relating to hazardous waste incineration (and therefore pesticide incineration) is focused on identifying facilities capable of meeting these requirements and on verifying their performance. 

Over the past 15 years, significant effort has been expended in evaluating pesticide incineration. Some of the earliest work on industrial waste incineration was performed on pesticides, and this work became part of the basis for the current regulations for the incineration of hazardous wastes. 

Significant activity is occurring in assessing hazardous waste incineration in both the private and public sectors. Much of the information gained from this effort will be directly applicable to our knowledge of the incineration of pesticides and pesticide-containing wastes. 

It has been estimated that over 400,000 m of dilute waste pesticide solution are generated In the United States annually ( 1 ). While the bulk of these waste solutions are used legally as spray diluent, some are disposed of by chemical or biological treatment, Incineration, or In soil pits and evaporation ponds (1-3). 

Because of the large volume of water Involved, Incineration Is not a preferred method. Adsorption of pesticides onto media such as activated charcoal, as well as biological and chemical treatment, are feasible methods, but they require frequent monitoring and maintenance. Evaporation ponds and soil pits have the advantages of less maintenance, applicability to a broad range of chemicals, and the ability to reduce the volume of waste via water evaporation. (1-3). In addition, these latter two methods have been estimated to be the least expensive on a per gallon basis of waste (J ). This Is of considerable Importance because the wastes are... 

Incineration is an estabhshed process for virtually complete destruction of organic compounds. It can oxidize solid, liquid, or gaseous combustible wastes to carbon dioxide, water, and ash. In the pesticide industry, thermal incinerators are used to destroy wastes containing compounds such as hydrocarbons (e.g., toluene), chlorinated hydrocarbons (e.g., carbon tetrachloride). 

As an example of incinerator use in the pesticide industry, one plant operates two incinerators to dispose of wastewater from six pesticide products [7]. They are rated at heat release capacities of 35 and 70 milhon Btu/hour and were designed to dispose of two different wastes. The first primary feed stream consists of approximately 95% organics and 5% water. The second stream consists of approximately 5% organics and 95% water. The energy generated in burning the primary stream is anticipated to vaporize all water in the secondary stream and to oxidize all the organics present. Wastes from two of the six pesticide processes use 0.55% and 4.68% of the incinerator capacity, respectively. The volume of the combined pesticide... 

The USEPA surveys identified 17 pesticide plants using deep well injection for the disposal of wastewater [7]. One plant used incinerators to remove pesticides as well as benzene and toluene from the wastewater before disposal by deep well injection. Using deep well injection to dispose of hazardous wastes is expected to decrease in the future because of more stringent regulatory requirements and increased concerns about the long-term fate of these wastes in the injection zone. 

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