Plasma destruction of hazardous mixed waste

Abstract

Inertial confinement by heavy ion beams is the most promizing approach to future generation of electrical energy. Activities in Europe concentrate at present on some key issues, the generation of intense heavy ion beams and the interaction of these beams with matter. After the completion of a systems study and some work on fundamental issues like ion stopping in fully ionized dense plasma, during the last decade, two aspects characterize the directions of future research: (1) The heavy ion synchrotron and cooler ring facility SIS/ESR at GSI is being commissioned these days and will allow a number of new experiments in the fields of high intensity beam dynamics and beam target interaction. With this facility beam instabilities at high space charge density can be investigated and dense plasmas can be produced u p to temperatures of several tens of electron volts. (2) New accelerator scenarios based on non-Liouvillean techniques, which allow current multiplication without increasing the phase space volume, are being investigated and may greatly influence the situation of heavy ion drivers. Plasma processing has t h e advantages o f h i g h l y e f f i c i e n t d e s t r u c t i o n ; smaller throughput, r e a c t o r , and a u x i l i a r y equipment; lower c a p i t a l costs; p o r t a b i l i t y ; h i g h l y s t a b i l i z e d waste forms; f a s t s t a r t u p and shutdown; closed system design; and c o m p e t i t i v e processing c o s t f o r mixed wastes. major disadvantages are r e l a t i v e l y h i g h energy costs; t h e assumption t h a t energy cost i s t h e o v e r r i d i n g economic f a c t o r ; l i m i t e d R&D funding t o develop t h e plasma engineering science (e.g., compared t o combustion science); and l i m i t e d experience of engineering f i r m s w i t h plasma processing systems. and a u x i l i a r y h e a t i n g methods. advantages f o r c e r t a i n types o f m a t e r i a l s and d e s i r e d products, b u t as i n combustion, s u f f i c i e n t time, temperature, and turbulence (mixing) are r e q u i r e d t o perform the d e s t r u c t i o n and recombination i n t o d e s i r a b l e products. The engineering science aspects o f these methods w i l l be discussed i n some d e t a i l as r e g a r d i n g gas phase r e a c t i o n s , s l a g chemistry, and f i n a l waste form c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . Present plasma processing science p a r a l l e l s t h e e a r l y days o f combustion science. To o b t a i n e f f i c i e n t plasma processing methods, research i s r e q u i r e d i n : 1. Plasma processing science regarding e l e c t r i c a l , thermodynamic, t r a n s p o r t , chemical r e a c t i v i t y , and p h y s i c a l p r o p e r t i e s 2. Plasma process energy t r a n s f e r t o enhance energy e f f i c i e n c y 3 . Plasma process chemical r e a c t i o n s t o enhance d e s t r u c t i o n e f f i c i e n c y 4 . Plasma process electromagnetic e f f e c t s t o reduce energy losses, enhance mixing, and promote se1 e c t i v e chemical r e ...

Plasmas for environmental issues: from hydrogen production to 2D materials assembly

“…Plasma treatment of a broad range of wastes has been reported in the literature, namely: MSW [46][47][48][49][50][51][52]; plastic waste [53][54][55][56][57][58]; biomass waste [14,43,[59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67]; liquid and solid hazardous waste, such as radioactive [68][69][70][71][72], toxic [47,[73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80], medical [41,[81][82][83], ash [84][85][86][87].…”

“…Studies of dc arc plasma treatment of fly ash, asbestos, aluminum, municipal wastes and low level nuclear wastes have been conducted by universities, as well as steel, electric power and engineering companies [70,92,93]. The engineering aspects of plasma hazardous waste treatment were discussed in [74][75][76]. Carbonaceous waste reduction was achieved in [77] by dc steam plasma gasification.…”