Principal organic hazardous components POHCs

The routine monitoring of every hazardous constituent of the effluent gases of operating incinerators is not now possible. EPA has established procedures to characterize incinerator performance in terms of the destruction of selected components of the anticipated waste stream. These compounds, labeled principal organic hazardous components (POHCs), are currently ranked on the basis of their difficulty of incineration and their concentration in the anticipated waste stream. The destraction efficiency is expressed in terms of elimination of the test species, with greater than 99.99 percent removal typically judged acceptable provided that toxic by-products are not generated in the process. 

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