Reduction of Persistent Organic Pollutant Emissions during Incinerator Start-up by Using Crude Waste Cooking Oil as an Alternative Fuel

Abstract

Illegal harvesting and recycling of waste cooking oil, also referred to as "gutter oil" in many countries, poses a great food safety threat. Thus, in this study the feasibility of using waste cooking oil as an auxiliary fuel in the furnace of laboratory waste incinerator was evaluated in terms of toxic pollutant emissions. Two fuel blends (W20D80 and W40D60) were blended from varying proportions of diesel fuel (D100), and waste cooking oil (W100) and their physio-chemical characteristics were subsequently determined and compared. Thermogravimetry analysis (TGA) and derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) of D100, W100, W20D80 and W40D60 showed that diesel fuel consist of more volatile short aliphatic hydrocarbons, while the waste cooking oil and its blends had more thermal stable unsaturated long chain molecules. After the de novo synthesis window of 200-400°C, 40% of waste cooking oil and 60% of diesel (W40D60) was injected at around 500-700°C, and reduced the toxicity concentrations of PCDD/Fs and PCBs by an average of 86% and 94%, respectively. This study demonstrated that, by using waste cooking oil as a fuel blend, not only can reduce the possibility of "gutter oil" being put in the food to damage the health of human beings, but also can be recycled as a kind of green fuel to reduce the emissions of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

Emissions of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Particle-Bound Metals from a Diesel Engine Generator Fueled with Waste Cooking Oil-Based Biodiesel Blends

“…The WCO-based biodiesel blends were also been reported as an greener fuel for POP reduction in both internal combustion engine and incinerators since they could enhance the oxidation of hydrocarbons and further inhibit the reformation of POPs from C 2 H 2 precursor (Tsai et al, 2015b(Tsai et al, , 2016Chen et al, 2017). Table 3 shows the emission factors (EFs) of BaP eq in term of unit fuel consumption and power generation by using D100, W20 and W40 at the two engine loads.…”

PBDE Emissions during the Start-up Procedure of an Industrial Waste Incinerator by the Co-Combustion of Waste Cooking Oil and Diesel Fuel

“…Finally, the viscosities of resulting blends were obtained using a Brookfield DV-I+ viscometer apparatus. Chen et al, 2017; Refer to Chang et al, 2014. Note: The results of D100 and W40D60 were re-illustrated from our previous research (Chen et al, 2017), when the data of W60D40 were done by the current study. …”

“…TGA and DTG results of D100 and W40D60 were reillustrated from our previous research (Chen et al, 2017) and compared with the data of W60D40, done by the current study (as shown in Fig. 1).…”

“…Therefore, the lower aromatic contents provided by WCO might inhibit the PAH formation from incompletely combustion and further reduced the PBDE and POP emissions, especially during the unsteady start-up operation. The toxicity of PCDD/F and PCB emissions were found 86% and 94% reduced, respectively, by using WCO-diesel co-combustion in our previous study (Chen et al, 2017).…”

“…During the above three fuel trials, only D100 was combusted when the Table 2). Therefore, injecting WCO to partially alter the diesel fuel at temperature around 550°C may improve and enhance flow characteristics and lead to more complete combustion based on some preliminary tests and thermogravimetry (TGA) results in our previous study (Chen et al, 2017) and Fig. 1.…”