Refuse incineration

Hutton M, Wadge A, Milligan PJ. 1988. Environmental levels of cadmium and lead in the vicinity of a maj or refuse incinerator. Atmos Environ 22 411 -416. 

Greenberg RR, Zoller WH, Gordon SE. 1978. Composition and size distribution of particles released in refuse incinerators. Environmental Science and Technology 12 566-573. 

Hopke, et al. (4) and Gaarenstroom, Perone, and Moyers (7) used the common factor analysis approach in their analyses of the Boston and Tucson area aerosol composition, respectively. In the Boston data, for 90 samples at a variety of sites, six common factors were identified that were interpreted as soil, sea salt, oil-fired power plants, motor vehicles, refuse incineration and an unknown manganese-selenium source. The six factors accounted for about 78 of the system variance. There was also a high unique factor for bromine that was interpreted to be fresh automobile exhaust. Large unique factors for antimony and selenium were found. These factors may possibly represent emission of volatile species whose concentrations do not oovary with other elements emitted by the same source. 

Results For the St. Louis data, the target transformation analysis results for the fine fraction without July Uth and 5th are given in table 6. The presence of a motor vehicle source, a sulfur source, a soil or flyash source, a titanium source, and a zinc source are indicated. The sulfur, titanium and zinc factors were determined from the simple initial test vectors for those elements. The concentration of sulfur was not related to any other elements and represents a secondary sulfate aerosol resulting from the conversion of primary sulfur oxide emissions. Titanium was found to be associated with sulfur, calcium, iron, and barium. Rheingrover ( jt) identified the source of titanium as a paint-pigment factory located to the south of station 112. The zinc factor, associated with the elements chlorine, potassium, iron and lead, is attributed to refuse incinerator emissions. This factor could also represent particles from zinc and/or lead smelters, though a high chlorine concentration is usually associated with particles from refuse incinerators ( ). The sulfur concentration in the refined sulfate factor is consistent with that of ammonium sulfate. The calculated lead concentration in the motor vehicle factor of ten percent and a lead to bromine ratio of about 0.28 are typical of values reported in the literature (25). The concentration of lead in... 

Here the lead contribution is 70 from motor vehicle emissions and 10 from refuse incinerators. In the coarse fraction, the two crustal components account for 80 of the total mass. 

Implications for Source Studies. The results discussed above Indicate the need for measurements of a number of elements In studies of particles both from sources and In ambient air. Measurements of Na, Pb, Ca, As, Mn and V are very Important for use In receptor models. Aluminum and Fe are quite useful, but not essential If many other llthophlle elements are measured (e.g., SI, Tl, Sc). Likewise, Zn Is useful, but could be replaced by elements such as Sb and Cd. However, AI, Fe and Zn can usually be measured more easily than their surrogates. Iron and elements such as Cr, Mn, Co and N1 will be Important In areas that have Iron and steel Industries and elements such as Cu, Zn, Pb and other chalcophlles In areas that have non-ferrous metal Industries. Sources of the unexplained Mn, Cr, Cu, Nl, K and Mg In Washington need to be Identified. Thus, we have a set of about 15 elements that should be measured as a minimum, plus others that may provide additional useful Information, e.g., Br, Ba, Cd, Sb. Note that It Is not sufficient to measure a given element only In particles from the dominant source of the element. For example, motor vehicles are the major source of Pb In most areas however, significant amounts are released by refuse Incinerators and non-ferrous smelters. Thus, If the CEB Is to determine the correct source strength for the motor—vehicle component, Pb contributions from the other, less Important sources must be known. 

As discussed above, many detailed studies of sources are needed to establish compositions of source components for receptor-model use. Coal-fired power plants have been studied more than other sources, but even In that case, there are not nearly enough data to establish trends for predicting components for plants that have not been studied. The situation Is much worse for most other sources, except possibly refuse Incinerators, of which the three studied release particles of very similar compositions (9, 10). 

Wadge, A., Hutton, M. Peterson, P. J. 1986. The concentration and particle size relationships of selected trace elements in fly ashes from U.K coal-fired power plants and a refuse incinerator. Science of the Total Environment, 54, 13-27. 

In the case of refuse incinerators a distinction must be made between the combustion of household and the incineration of chemical waste. Burning household waste involves steam generators used to generate electricity. The combustion chamber is provided with steam pipes which have to be protected against corrosive gases by means of SiC-containing materials. 

Not identified Kuopio University, Department of Environmental Sciences Kuopio, Finland Release of Chlorinated Hydrocardons in Refuse Incineration Imatran Voiman Saeaetioe, Helsinki (Finland)... 

Beychok MR. 1987. A data base of dioxin and furan emissions from municipal refuse incinerators. Atmos Environ 21 29-36. 

Karasek FW, Dickson LC. 1987. Model studies of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin formation during municipal refuse incineration. Science 237 754-756. 

Alarie Y, Iwasaki M, Stock MF, et al. 1989. Effects of inhaled municipal refuse incinerator fly ash in the guinea pig. J Toxicol Environ Health 28 13-25. 

Incineration is another form of energy recovery [ 1 ]. Some hazardous waste incinerators and many refuse incinerators are equipped with energy recovery equipment. While some major facilities operate either or both types of incinerators, most firms must resort to offsite treatment. These treatment facilities should be carefully evaluated from an economic, regulatory, and operations standpoint. While these facilities reduce volume and, generally, toxicity, air pollutant generation and the final incinerator ash disposal must still be considered and may impact a generator s liability. 

Model experiment on the processes in a refuse incineration plant (Experiment 61) Determination of degree of pollution of water (Experiment 109)... 

A calculation of maximum/minimum ratio from the atmospheric input data in Figure 3 yields the following results Pb = 33, Zn = 9, Cd = 17, Cr=1.5, Cu = 5, Ni = 4. We know that the burning of leaded gasoline is responsible for the large increase of Pb. Enormous metal production of Zn and Cd ores as well as refuse incineration are responsible for the increases of these metals. In addition, marine aerosols are an important source of Cd (Li, 1981). Obviously, Cu-Ni production from ores increased during this period but not nearly as much as for Zn-Cd. Also, combustion of fossil fuels contributed somewhat to the increase of Cu and Ni. The main source of Cr is steel and iron manufacturing which appears to not be as important an impact on the atmospheric environment as sources for the other metals. The pollution sources of Cr are minimal as reflected in the balance between riverine input and marine sediment output (Li, 1981). 

A similar calculation for the riverine inputs (Ligure 3) yields the following results Pb = 14, Zn = 5, Cd = 40, Cr = 7.5, Cu = 6, Ni = 8. With the exception of Pb and Cd, the increases for Zn-Cr-Cu-Ni are similar. Smelting wastes and coal fly ash releases are the common sources of these four metals. Gasoline residues are an obvious source of the Pb increases and urban refuse incineration is a major source of the Cd increase (Nriagu and Pacyna, 1988). 

Rain clouds process a considerable volume of air over relatively large distances and thus are able to absorb gases and aerosols from a large region. Because fog is formed in the lower air masses, fog droplets are efficient collectors of pollutants close to the earth s surface. The influence of local emissions (such as NH3 in agricultural regions or HCl near refuse incinerators) is reflected in the fog composition. 

Figure 5.13 illustrates the composition of a radiation fog. In this particular case, the effect of HCl (probably from a refuse incineration plant at a distance of 3 km) caused a lowering of pH in the fog water as far down as pH 1.94. 

Thermodynamic characteristics of the proposed system, which generates power by utilizing the waste heat from a factory, were estimated. It has been shown that the system has exergetic efficiency of 57.5% and fuel-base efficiency of 63.6%. Potential of CO2 emission reduction was also evaluated assuming the case where the waste heat emitted from all the refuse incineration plants in Japan in 1991 were utilized in the system. It has been shown that introducing the system has the potential of reducing CO2 emission of 9.62 x 10 t/y. 

Bache CA, Gutenmann WH, Rutzke M, et al. 1991. Concentrations of metals in grasses in the vicinity of a municipal refuse incinerator. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 20 538-542. 

Mumma RO, Raupach DC, Sahadewan K, et al. 1991. Variation in the elemental composition of municipal refuse incinerator ashes with time of sampling. Chemosphere 23 391-395. 

COSTS OF SMALL MODULAR REFUSE INCINERATION SYSTEM Design capacity is 18.2 metric ton/day (20 ton/day)... 

ESTIMATED INVESTMENT COSTS FOR LARGE MODULAR REFUSE INCINERATION SYSTEMS WITH HEAT RECOVERY... 

COST OF LARGE MODULAR REFUSE INCINERATOR SYSTEMS... 

Figure 3. Economics of operating large modular refuse incinerators with heat recovery and particulate control...

As years went by more experience was gained and through the combined skills of designers, manufacturers and operators refuse incineration attained its present status of a well proven though expensive method of waste disposal. 

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