Indication of PCDD/F formation through precursor condensation in a full-scale hazardous waste incinerator

Abstract

This paper gives the PCDD/F fingerprint of boiler and fly ash of a full scale hazardous waste incinerator and demonstrates that, when the waste to be incinerated contains high concentrations of PCBs and chlorinated pesticides, heterogeneous precursor condensation is the dominant PCDD/F formation mechanism, rather than de novo synthesis. This is in contrast to full scale municipal solid waste (MSW) incinerators, where de novo synthesis has been shown to be the dominant PCDD/F formation mechanism. This paper agrees with earlier predictions based on numerous lab scale experiments.

A review of dioxin-related substances during municipal solid waste incineration

“…PCDD/Fs from this process are termed as heterogeneous PCDD/Fs or low-temperature PCDD/Fs. Heterogeneous PCDD/Fs may also come from CP or CBz (Addink and Olie, 1995a;Vermeulen et al, 2014), or from carbon in fly ash (Huang and Buekens, 1995). The main process is the surface catalytic effect of fly ash or soot, i.e.…”

Simultaneous removal of PCDD/Fs and NOx from the flue gas of a municipal solid waste incinerator with a pilot plant

“…However, 300°C was also considered as a suitable temperature in favor of the de novo synthesis process (Vermeulen et al, 2014), which might reflect a significant influence on the congener distribution in the gas-phase and particle-phase after heating treatment. In order to research the detailed decomposition performance at this temperature, the congener profiles of PCDD/Fs for gas-phase and particle-phase of the 300-Outlet sample were obtained.…”

Waste-to-energy is compatible and complementary with recycling in the circular economy

“…Research in real scale WtE plants showed that POPs, such as PCDD/Fs, PCBs and PBEs, are largely destroyed upon combustion, whereas the amount of PCDD/Fs and PCBs newly formed upon cooling of the flue gases in the steam boiler is limited and to a great extent independent of the POP concentration in the input waste (Vehlow et al, 2000;Van Caneghem et al, 2010a;Van Caneghem et al, 2010b;Vermeulen et al, 2014). For hazardous waste incinerators, DEs above 99.999% and DREs above 99.9999% have been reported for POP wastes (UNEP, 2015).…”