Air quality effects of a hazardous waste incineration system

Abstract

High-temperature incineration is a potentially attractive method for disposing of substantial quantities of burnable hazardous waste materials, particularly if the recovery and use ofthe resultant heat energy is incorporated into the incineration system. The technology for effectively incinerating a broad range of combustible waste materials and for controlling the emission of gaseous and particulate byprodncts has been demonstrated [I-41. Further, ifan incineration system is properly designed, sited, and operated, waste incineration can be conducted with minimal adverse environmental effects.In order to assess the potential air-quality effects of a hazardous-waste incineration system, operated in conformance with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Incinerator Regulations [5], an atmosphericdispersion modeling analysis has been performed. The emission characteristics of a commercial-scale wasteincineration system were used in this analysis. The basic underlying premise of the study was that the system operation would comply with the current RCRA regulations governing the minimum waste organic constituent destruction and removal efficiency, the hydrogen chloride (HCI) emission-control efficiency, and the maximum allowable particulate-emission level. In addition to providing background information on the magnitudes of expected air-quality impacts, the results of this analysis can lie used as a preliminary screening tool for siting incineration systems and for evaluating potential waste streams of commercial-scale hazardous-waste incineration systems. INCINERATION SYSTEMThe system analyzed represented the state-of-the-art in waste-incineration technology. The system consisted ofan incinerator, capable of burning solid or liquid waste, followed by a flue-gas cleaning system for the removal of gaseous and particulate exhaust-gas contaminants. The design heat input ofthe system was 78 gigajoules per hour(74 million Btu per hour). This heat input corresponded to a waste feed rate of approximately 5,130 kilograms per hour (1 1,300 pounds per hour), based on a waste-heat content of approximately 15,235 joules per gram (6,550 Btu per pound). These are average, design values; the precise waste feed rate would depend on the nature and heat content of the specific waste material burned.At design conditions, the volumetric flue-gas rate would be 1,930 actual cubic meters per minute (68,300 actual cubic feet per minute) at a temperature of 88°C (190°F). The corresponding standard dry-gas volumetric flow rate corrected to a carbon dioxide concentration of 12 percent would be 458.3 dry standard cubic meters per minute (16,190 dry standard cubic feet per minute at 70°F). After passing through the flue-as cleaning system, the stack, 1.8 meters in diameter.stack gas is emitted to the atmosp a ere from a 36-meter high EMISSIONSIn conformance with the RCRA Incinerator Regulations, only those waste materials for which the incineration system had a demonstrated destruction and removal efficiency (DRE) of at least 99.99 pe...