Trial Burn Phases

Some considerations relevant to public health concerns about modern and effective incineration systems have been described. However, local health officials and citizens of communities with hazardous waste incinerators have expressed to ATSDR their concern that they may not be able to judge a good operation, or that, once the initial trial burns and inspections are completed, the system may not be operated in the same manner as during the testing phase. Citizens have also expressed concern that burning rates will be exceeded or monitoring systems will be overridden. 

The pretrial bum phase of the permit allows the incinerator to achieve a state of operational readiness necessary to conduct the trial burn. The pretrial bum permit conditions are effective for the... 

An owner/operator wishing to operate a new hazardous waste BIF is required to obtain an RCRA permit before beginning construction of the unit. The purpose of this permit is to allow the new BIF to establish operating conditions that will ensure adequate protection of human health and the environment. The BIF permit process consists of four operational phases pretrial burn, trial burn, posttrial burn, and final operating conditions. 

The pretrial burn phase of the permit allows the BIF to achieve the state of operational readiness necessary to conduct the trial burn. The pretrial burn permit conditions are effective for the minimum time (not to exceed 720 h) required to bring the BIF to a point of operational readiness to conduct a trial bum. This phase is often referred to as the shakedown period. 

In the earlier phases of the Army s Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program, an agent trial burn conducted for each incinerator with each agent to be processed was an appropriate way for disposal facility staff and state regulatory staff to gain operational experience and confidence in the performance of the incinerators. 

The only real sources of difference between the additive and comonomer systems would be the potential lack of homogeneity of the polymer blends, which may result either through incomplete blending or segregation by phase separation. Since such nonhomogeneity could lead to irreproducibility in the burning trials, this would be detected by the flammability testing. 

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