Abstract. In recent years, in the winter season we are alarmed about the poor air quality in Poland and significantly exceeded permissible concentrations of certain pollutants, especially PM10 and PM2.
Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans are generally considered the most dangerous chemical substances known to man. Although they have never been the product of purposeful human activity, yet they are formed in many chemical and virtually all thermal processes. Research on the occurrence of dioxins in the environment, their release into the environment, ways of formation and methods of reducing their emissions lasts since the late seventies of the last century. Currently, we know three basic pathways of dioxins formation in thermal processes, the most important of them being the so called de novo synthesis which occurs outside the combustion zone at 200-400°C in the presence of catalysts (eg copper) and oxygen from the products of incomplete combustion including carbon black and chlorine or chlorinated compounds. It is well known that some metals like copper catalyze the de novo synthesis, while others decompose dioxins and furans formed previously. The formation of dioxins resulting from the de novo synthesis was studied through analysis of the effect of the type of metal on the course of the de novo synthesis. The influence of the addition of sulfur, nitrogen and alkali metals on this synthesis was also examined because some reports in the literature refer to inhibitory effect of these elements.
In recent years, five modern municipal waste incineration plants have been built in Poland. Next ones are being constructed and at the same time building of several others is being considered. Despite positive experience with the operation of the existing installations, each project of building a new incinerator raises a lot of emotions and social protests. The main argument against construction of an incineration plant is the emission of pollutants. The work compares emissions from municipal waste incineration plants with those from typical heating plants: in the first part, for comparison large heating plants equipped with pulverized coal-fired boilers (OP-140), stoker-fired boilers (three OR-32 boilers) or gas blocks with heat output of about 100 MW have been selected, while the second part compares WR-10 and WR-25 stoker-fired boilers most popular in our heating industry with thermal treatment systems for municipal waste or refuse-derived-fuel (RDF) with similar heat output. Both absolute emission and impact -immission of pollutants in vicinity of the plant were analyzed.
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