Waste incinerator, municipal

Bullock (1997) used the Regional Lagrangian Model of Air Pollution (RELMAP) to simulate the emission, transport, chemical transformation, and wet and dry deposition of elemental mercury gas, divalent mercury gas, and particulate mercury from various point and area source types to develop an atmospheric mercury emissions inventory by anthropogenic source type. The results of the RELMAP model are shown in Table 5-3. On a percentage basis, various combustion processes (medical waste incinerators, municipal waste incinerators, electric utility power production [fossil fuel burning] and nonutility power and heat generation) account for 83% of all anthropogenic emissions in the United States. Overall, of the emissions produced, 41% were associated with elemental mercury vapor (Hg°), 41% with the mercuric form (Hg2+), and 18% was mercury associated with particulates. 

Waste incineration (municipal, medical and hazardous wastes)... 

Waste incineration Municipal wastes Superheaters Up to 480 X Oxidation/sulfidation/chloridation/... 

A. M. Ujihara and M. Gough, ManagingMsh From Municipal Waste Incinerators, Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C., 1989. 

Hydrogen chloride in the lungs can cause pulmonary edema, a life threatening condition. In order for HCl in air to reach the lungs, it must be transported either as an aerosol or as a deposit on soot particles of less than 3 p.m in diameter. A procedure for the removal of 99% of the HCl from municipal waste incinerators has been developed (87). Lime is employed as a dry adsorbent which is collected in a filter bag system. 

R. S. Magee, Plastics in Municipal Solid Waste Incineration A Eiterature Study, Hazardous Substance Management Research Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Mar. 1989. 

Concentration of WTE Incinerators The total number of municipal waste incinerator facihties as hsted in the Solid Waste Digest, vol. 4, no. 9 September 1994 (a publication of Chartwell Information Publishers of Alexandria, VA) is 62. See Table 25-69, which covers over 200 existing units. The wastes burned in these facilities totals 8.44 percent of total municipal wastes managed in landfills, incinerators, and transfer stations. This amounts to 88,470 tons per day combusted municipal waste. 

Table 10.2 Selected emission limits for municipal waste incineration (units mg/m ) ...

EEC Directive on existing municipal waste incineration plants... 

The specific molecular mechanisms by which PCDDs and PCDFs are initially formed and become part of the PIC remain largely unknown and are theoretical. The theoretical basis for conjecture is derived primarily from direct observations in municipal solid waste incinerators. The emissions of... 

Venmri scrubbers have been applied to control PM emissions from utility, industrial, commercial, and institutional boilers fired with coal, oil, wood, and liquid waste. They have also been applied to control emission sources in the chemical, mineral products, wood, pulp and paper, rock products, and asphalt manufacrnring industries lead, aluminum, iron and steel, and gray iron production industries and to municipal solid waste incinerators. Typically, venturi scrubbers are applied where it is necessary to obtain high collection efficiencies for fine PM. Thus, they are applicable to controlling emission sources with high concentrations of submicron PM. 

Corrective Action Application Fluidized bed incineration has been used to incinerate municipal wastewater treatment plant sludge, oil refinery waste, some pharmaceutical wastes, and some chemical wastes including phenolic waste, and methyl methacrylate. Heat recovery is piossible. 

Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and selective noncatalytic reduction processes (SNCR) are widely employed in large industrial and utility boiler plants, as well as in municipal waste incineration plants and other combustion processes. They are used to complement mechanical improvements (such as low NOx burners and furnace design modifications) as an aid to reducing the emission levels of NOx, S02, and other noxious gases into the atmosphere. 

The fate of aromatic bromine compounds such as brominated dibenzodioxins occurring on fly ash of municipal waste incinerators has been deduced from appropriate laboratory experiments. Stereoselective, first order ipso-substitution of bromine by chlorine is observed. 

By variation of temperature and air flow rate burning conditions ranging form a smoldering fire to an open fire (e.g. conditions of a municipal waste incinerator) can be modeled. Details can be found in the literature (refs. 8-10). The furnaces are complementary to each other. In general similar results are obtained. 

Fate of Aromatic Bromine Compounds During Municipal Waste Incineration... 

Aromatic bromine compounds can be formed and transformed during various thermal processes, like aromatic chlorine compounds (ref. 22). Brominated dibenzodioxins and -furans and mixed brominated/chlorinated compounds have been detected in trace levels in the fly ash of a municipal waste incinerator (ref. 23).Chlorine is generally abundant compared to the bromine of typical municipal waste the chlorine vs. bromine ratio is in the range of 250 1. 

We have simulated the relevant reactions occurring at 3(X)°C on the surface of fly ash of electrostatic filters of a municipal waste incinerator (MWI) using the following device (Fig. 9) (ref. 24). 

These results show the fate of aromatic bromine compounds during municipal waste incineration bromine is exchanged by chlorine on the surface of fly ash at the electrostatic precipitator at 250-3(X)°C. But the toxic potential at brominated dibenzodioxins and furans is not reduced by these transformations. The increase of PCDD/F concentration in MWI by adding bromine compounds has been pointed out by Lahl and coworkers (ref. 26). 

Metals in the feedstock end up in slag and fines. The slag meets the quality standards of the Dutch Building decree, and the fines have a comparable quality to municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly-ash (a.4). 

Fines. These have a quality that would match the quality of fly ash from Dutch municipal solid waste incineration plants. 

Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators (with Energy Recovery)... 

Municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs) are a robust treatment method for very different mixed waste types of different origin. The typical MSWI handles waste of a calorific value between 9 and 13 MJ/kg. They are the key technology for the treatment of integral household waste in countries such as Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany. Some 7% of this integral household waste consists of plastics. Treatment of... 

Processing Costs of Waste Materials in a Municipal Solid Waste Incinerator, Report TNO-MEP R96/248, TNO-MEP, Apeldoom, the Netherlands, 1996. 

Tests conducted in Finland and Sweden have indicated the viability of using waste paper and plastic packaging as a fuel in a conventional power plant rather than in a municipal solid waste incinerator. If the process is accepted, as much as 30 million tonnes of the 50 million tonnes of combustible packaging which Europe consumes each year could be used for power generation. The feasibility of the initiative is discussed, and its implications in terms of future power plant construction. APME... 

Mowrer 1,1 Nordin (1987) Characterization of halogenated organic acids in flue gases from municipal waste incinerators. Chemosphere 16 1181-1192. 

Reductions in U.S. mercuiy emissions from medical and municipal waste incinerators and other industrial sectors have already occurred. Additional emission reductions from some coal-fired power plants have also already begun as co-benefits from technologies used to control SO2 and NO emissions. These mercury emissions from power plants are, however, expected to be reduced further over the next few decades. Meanwhile, changes in mercuiy emissions in other parts of the world may also affect some U.S. ecosystems. 

The literature includes a number of mis-matches, the following standing as examples for the many The use of bovine liver and other animal tissues for QC in the analysis of hmnan body fluids should not be considered by analysts. The matrix and the levels of trace elements do not match the levels to be analyzed, which may lead to serious errors. An even more severe mis-use was recently reported by Schuhma-cher et al. (1996) for NIST SRM 1577a Bovine Liver, which was used for QC in the analysis of trace elements in plant materials and soil samples in the vicinity of a municipal waste incinerator. Also recently, Cheung and Wong (1997) described how the quality control for the analysis of trace elements in clams (shellfish) and sediments was performed with the same material NIST SRM 1646, Estuarine sediment. Whilst the selected SRM was appropriate for sediments, its usefulness as a QC tool for clams is difficult to prove see also Chapter 8. This inappropriate use is the more mystifying because a broad selection of suitable shellfish RMs from various producers is available. 

Schuhmacher M, Granero S, Belles M, Llobet JM and Domingo JL (1996) Levels of metals in soils and vegetation in the vicinity of a municipal solid waste incinerator. Toxicol Environ Chem 56 119-132. 

Domingo JL, Schuhmacher M, Agramunt MC, Llobet JM, Rivera J, Muller L (2002) PCDD/F levels in the neighbourhood of a municipal solid waste incinerator after introduction of technical improvements in the facility. Environ Int 28(l-2) 19-27. doi 10.1016/S0160-4120(01)00129-5... 

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]... 

Dioxin-like compounds are known to be one of the most harmful persistent organic pollutants of the chlorine based compounds. Dioxins are repeatedly synthesized and decomposed by complicated mechanisms and temperature changes at different locations in municipal solid waste incineration processes and the final streams discharged are commonly exhaust gas and incineration ash. Dioxins in different discharge types and compositions of effluents could be affected by incineration conditions such as temperature, feeding and discharging methods and incinerator type [47]. 

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