Waste Management 32 (2012) 14531458

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Waste Management
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman

Sludge as dioxins suppressant in hospital waste incineration

Mi Yan a, Xiaodong Li a,, Jie Yang a, Tong Chen a, Shengyong Lu a, Alfons G. Buekens a, Kees Olie b,
Jianhua Yan a
a
b

State Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Utilization, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 22 September 2011
Accepted 8 March 2012
Available online 3 April 2012
Keywords:
Sludge
Dioxins
Suppression
Hospital waste incineration

a b s t r a c t
Nitrogen containing compounds such as ammonia, urea and amines can effectively inhibit the formation
of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs). Sewage sludge accumulates both
sulfur and nitrogen during wastewater treatment so it could be used to reduce PCDD/Fs formation.
Indeed, it is observed in this study that the gas evolving from the sludge drying process can signicantly
suppress chlorobenzene (CBz) and PCDD/Fs formation from y ash collected from a hospital waste incinerator. For instance, the reduction of hexachlorobenzene (HxCBz) and PCDD/Fs amount was 92.1% and
78.7%, respectively, when the drying gas evolving from 2 g sludge ew through 2 g y ash. These tests
were conducted in the frame of projects devoted to hospital waste incineration. The disposal technology
for hospital waste (HW), developed in this institute, features rotary kiln pyrolysis combined with postcombustion followed by ue gas cleaning. Hence, some preliminary tests were devoted to investigate
dioxins suppression by co-pyrolysis and co-combustion of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and sludge in lab
scale. More experimental research will be conducted to appropriately assess these effects of sludge on
PCDD/Fs emissions during co-pyrolysis/combustion of HW and sludge.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), polychlorinated
dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and hexachlorobenzene (HxCBz) are persistent organic pollutants (POP) which can induce various adverse
health effects. The Stockholm Convention denes the need to eliminate POP production and emissions. Waste incineration contributes the largest release of PCDD/Fs so a lot of studies focus on
dioxins emission control from waste incineration. Nitrogen containing compounds including ammonia, urea, amines and amine
salts (Kuzuhara et al., 2005; Samaras et al., 2000; Takacs and
Moilanen, 1991) have been proved capable of inhibiting dioxins
formation. Ruokojrvi et al. (2001) even found 91% reduction of total PCDD/Fs by adding 1 wt.% of urea to refuse derived fuel (RDF).
Sewage sludge is the excess cell material produced during biological wastewater treatment. It is high in nitrogen and sulfur
(Witter and Lopez, 1988); the average content of nitrogen in dry
sludge is approximately 4% (Francisca et al., 2005; Werther and
Ogada, 1999). Common disposal methods of sludge are landll
and incineration. Yet sludge dewatering and possibly drying are
essential for both methods (Gruter et al., 1990). Ammonia will be
desorbed during sludge drying, together with other volatile compounds (Deng et al., 2009a). However, heavy metals in sludge, such
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 571 8795 2037; fax: +86 571 8795 2438.
E-mail address: lixd@zju.edu.cn (X. Li).
0956-053X/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2012.03.007

as Cu and Zn (Chen et al., 2008) could catalyze PCDD/Fs formation.

Sulfur exists in coal, and the co-combustion of coal and municipal
solid waste causes low dioxins emission (Gullett et al., 1998; Yan
et al., 2006). Considering the above review, the initial part of this
study was to gure out that the vapor from sludge drying connected to ue gas and co-combustion of hospital waste (HW) and
sludge are favorable for dioxins reduction. This paper tested the
idea of combining the drying of sludge with HW thermal treatment
comprising rotary kiln pyrolysis, post-combustion and ue gas
treatment (Lu et al., 2008).
Co-ring of sewage sludge and waste can be conducted in
numerous different ways. In one such system currently under
development, raw sludge is dried in a rotary dryer and then combined with the waste incinerator input. After mixing, it is combusted together with the waste. In conventional HW
incineration, the heat produced usually cannot be used to generate electric power and the hot ue gas is quenched by water
spray to reduce the residence time in the 500200 C temperature
window. In this novel system, part of the heat is recovered in the
sludge dryer using hot ue gas and a fuel supplement is simultaneously obtained. Dry sludge has the same caloric value as lignite and a low content of chlorine (Francisca et al., 2005;
Werther and Ogada, 1999). Mixing dry sludge into other refuse
can stabilize the caloric value and decrease the chlorine content
of incinerator feed. The design of this system will be covered in a
separate paper.

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M. Yan et al. / Waste Management 32 (2012) 14531458

Table 2
Heavy metal content of DS, mg/kg.

2. Materials and methods

According to the report of Identication and Quantication of
Dioxin and Furan Release by UNEP (2005) and further research of
dioxin balance in waste incinerator (Huang and Buekens, 1995),
over 50% of the total dioxin generation is in y ash. Fly ash works
as the key catalyst for heterogeneous formation of PCDD/Fs. Dioxins are mainly formed from y ash via de novo synthesis in ue gas.
So y ash was used in this study to simulate PCDD/Fs formation in
waste incinerator. Fly ash was sampled at the exit of a fabric lter
operating in a full-scale HW incinerator. Fly ash sample was Soxhlet extracted for 24 h using toluene to remove the original organic
compounds, including dioxins and chlorobenzenes, and then dried
in room air. The moisture content of raw sludge (RS) was 85.2%.
Raw sludge was dewatered at 105 C for 6 h, noted as dried sludge
(DS). Proximate and ultimate analysis of DS is presented in Table 1;
the chlorine content was 0.67%; heavy metals in DS are shown in
Table 2.
Sludge drying and co-pyrolysis/combustion experiments were
performed in the laboratory. Sludge drying was carried out in a
tubular furnace (Fig. 1) comprising three sections (0.5 m each section, total 1.5 m) and featuring three independent heaters and temperature controllers (Ta, Tb and Tc). The internal diameter of
quartz tube was 30 mm. Sludge was provided in a quartz boat
and y ash was located between two quartz cotton layers. The
gas (10% O2, balance N2) rstly owed over the quartz boat
(sludge) carrying sludge vapor and drying gas through y ash.
Co-pyrolysis/combustion was conducted in anther system as
description in Fig. 2, using a short furnace (Td) forward the previous system. There were two independent entrances in the short
furnace, A and B respectively, and the gases from these two inputs
were mixed together at the end of short furnace.
During the drying experiments (A and B series), the carrier gas
consisted of 10% O2 and 90% N2, and the total ow was 300 ml/min.
Temperatures were set at Ta = 200 C (sludge), Tb = Tc = 350 C (y
ash). The resident time of gas owing from the sludge to the end of
the furnace was about 68 s (350 C). A Gasmet online monitor (Finland, FTIR DX-4000) was used to detect the common gas-phase
pollutants at the same experimental conditions of B-1 and B-3,
while the adsorption experiments were done.
Co-pyrolysis (C series) and co-combustion (D series) experiments were conducted in the composite set-up of Fig. 2. Experimental conditions for the C series were set as following: Gas
A = 2.4 l/min N2, Gas B = 0.6 l/min O2, Td = 600 C, Ta = 900 C,
Tb = 700 C, Tc = 350 C. So the waste was rst pyrolyzed at
600 C under N2, and then combusted with air (20% O2, 900 C).
Experimental conditions for the D series were set: Gas A = 3 l/
min Air, entrance B was shunted off (Gas B = 0 ml/min O2),
Td = 900 C, Ta = 700 C, Tb = 500 C, Tc = 350 C. So the waste
was directly combusted in Td section (20% O2, 900 C). All experiments lasted 60 min. Each experiment was run twice for duplication and the average result was cited for nal value. The
reactants are shown in Table 3.
Pretreatment of CBz samples was according to the Chinese State
Standard Methods HJ/T74-2001 (MEP, 2001) and GB7492-87 (MEP,

Fe

Cu

Zn

Hg

Ni

Cr

Pb

Se

As

Cd

13280.7

853.4

465.1

101.3

66.5

60.9

53.6

25.6

18.7

5.9

Fig. 1. Sketch system of sludge drying experiments including A and B series (1

Mass ow meter, 2 Internal quartz tube, 3 Quartz boat, 4 Quartz cotton layers,
5 Fly ash, 6 Long furnace, 7 External quartz tube, 8 XAD-II resin, 9 Toluene,
10 Ice bath).

Fig. 2. Sketch system of co-pyrolysis/combustion experiments (C series) (1 Mass

ow meter, 2 Internal quartz tube, 3 Short furnace, 4 Quartz boat, 5 Long
furnace, 6 External quartz tube, 7 XAD-II resin, 8 Toluene, 9 Ice bath).

1987), thus consisting of extraction, cleanup (H2SO4 treatment,

multi-layer silica gel column and Florisil) and concentration in a
gentle N2 ow. CBz analysis was conducted by using GC-ECD (Agilent 6890N GC) with a DB-5 column (30 m  0.25 mm  0.25 lm).
The temperature program for the GC oven was as follows: initial
temperature 80 C, held for 4 min; increased at 5 C/min to

Table 1
Proximate and ultimate analysis of sludge (%, w/w).

105 C (6 h)b
200 C (1 h)c
a
b
c

Ma

Fc

Qb (J/g)

St

2.06
0.04

51.04
56.14

40.25
33.76

6.65
10.06

10,981
10,539

25.61
24.98

3.87
3.05

3.94
3.65

1.06
0.98

12.42
11.16

M, Moisture; A, Ash; V, Volatile; Fc, Fix carbon; Qb, Bomb caloric value; C, Carbon; H, Hydrogen; N, Nitrogen; St, Total sulfur content; O, Oxygen.
The raw sludge was heated at 105 C for 6 h, named as dried sludge (DS).
Residual sludge after the drying experiment of DS (200 C for 1 h).

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M. Yan et al. / Waste Management 32 (2012) 14531458

Table 3
Experimental condition.a

Reagents

A-1
A-2
A-3
A-4
A-5
/
/

2g
2g
2g
2g
2g
/
/

ash
ash + 2 g
ash + 4 g
ash + 2 g
ash + 4 g

RS
RS
DS
DS

Detection

No.

Reagents

Detection

CBz
CBz
CBz
CBz
CBz
/
/

B-1
B-2
B-3
C-1b
C-2
D-1c
D-2

2g
2g
2g
1g
1g
1g
1g

PCDD/Fs, Online monitoring of common gas product

PCDD/Fs
PCDD/Fs, Online monitoring of common gas product
PCDD/Fs
PCDD/Fs
PCDD/Fs
PCDD/Fs

ash
ash + 1 g DS
ash + 2 g DS
PVC + 3% CuO
PVC + 3% CuO + 3% DS
PVC + 3% CuO
PVC + 3% CuO + 3% DS

A and B series experiments conducted in the tubular furnace (Fig. 1), C and D series experiments in the quadruple furnace (Fig. 2).
C series experiments belong to the series experiments of co-pyrolysis.
D series experiments belong to the series experiments of co-combustion.

106 C, held for 0.5 min; increased at 8 C/min to 250 C and held
for 15 min. The clean up procedure of PCDD/Fs samples was
according to the USEPA1613 method (U.S. EPA, 1994). High-resolution gas chromatography was performed with a high-resolution
mass spectrometer (HRGC/HRMS) (JEOL JMS-800D) and a DB5MS column (60 m  0.25 mm  0.25 lm) was applied for PCDD/
Fs analysis. The temperature program for the GC oven was set as:
initial temperature was 150 C, held for 1 min; increased at
25 C/min to 190 C; then increased at 3 C/min to 280 C; held
for 20 min. Target compounds were Tetra- to Octa- CDD/Fs (136
isomers). Details of the cleanup procedure and analysis method
of PCDD/Fs and CBz could be found in our previous study (Yan
et al., 2010).

reduced. For instance, the suppression percentage for each congener was 78.0% (TeCBz), 93.72% (PeCBz) and 92.01% (HxCBz) in A-4,
compared to A-1. HxCBz is a persistent organic pollutant, so its
emission control from waste incineration must be of concern too.
Considering the experimental result, sludge drying gas could be
used in HxCBz emission control. Chlorobenzenes are thought as

2000

(a)

1600

CO
NO
NH3

CO

1200

NO

800

ppm

a
b

No.

3. Results and discussion

N2O

400
300

HCl
HCN

NH3

200

N2O

HCl

100
0
0

1000

HCN

2000

3000

Time, s

ppm

When treating DS at 200 C, more water vapor evolved together

with ammonia, organic and inorganic volatiles. The evolution of
volatiles was not negligible (DS lost 9.65 wt.% during drying at
200 C for 1 h), yet thermal decomposition was slow. This efuent
was then used as a suppressant in the inhibition tests. Proximate
and ultimate analysis of the residual sludge is in Table 1. From a
comparison of the results (Table 1), the loss of carbon in DS was
11.87% (0.06 g), nitrogen reduction was 16.24% (12.8 mg) during
the drying experiment.
The results of Gasmet online monitoring are presented in Fig. 3.
When heating the ash sample B1 at 200 C, upon its introduction
into the furnace, the dissolved gases, as well as some decomposition products evolved from the sample (Fig. 3a). During B1 process,
strong signals arose from CO, NO and NH3, while weak signals from
N2O, HCl and HCN. The NH3 curve in B3 had a remarkable peak at
2524 ppm. Comparisons between B1 and B3 showed that CO and
NO decreased, NH3 and HCN signicantly increased, and HCl and
N2O just slightly changed after DS was added into the furnace.
The sequence of CO, NH3, and HCN maxima is presented in Table
4. From calculation of NH3 emission, approximately 5.2 mg of
nitrogen (<12.8 mg) in DS was evolved as NH3. Although the maximum of CO in B-3 was smaller than the peak value of B-1, the
average value was higher than B-1 for the carbon emission from
DS.
CBz experimental results are shown in Fig. 4. In experiment A-1,
tetrachlorobenzene (TeCBz), pentachlorobenzene (PeCBz) and
HxCBz yields were 943.60 ng/g, 440.17 ng/g and 91.08 ng/g,
respectively. The generation of CBz congeners decreased with its
chlorination degree. After RS drying gas entered furnace, HxCBz decreased remarkably 21.17% (A-2) and 73.60% (A-3). By contrast,
TeCBz in A-2 and A-3 increased by 59.70% and 41.44%, respectively.
It was supposed that RS drying gas blocked the chlorination of lower chlorinated benzenes (TeCBz) to higher chlorinated benzenes
(HxCBz). When DS was added into the furnace, the inhibition
was quite strong. The yields of each CBz congener signicantly

2500

(b)

2000

NH3

NH3
CO
NO
HCN
N2O

CO

1500

HCl

NO

300

HCN
N2O

200
100
0
0 HCl

1000

2000

3000

Time, s
Fig. 3. Emission of common gas pollutant in B series experiments (B-1 and B-3).

Table 4
Maximum values (ppm) for various gases and the reached time (s).

Compound

CO, ppm

NH3, ppm

HCN, ppm

CO, s

NH3, s

HCN, s

B-1
B-3
B-1a
B-3a

1961
1648
207
314

282
2524
79
543

32
209
9
55

460
460
/
/

525
545
/
/

500
540
/
/

The average value.

M. Yan et al. / Waste Management 32 (2012) 14531458

A-1
A-4
A-5

40

the precursor and surrogate of PCDD/Fs, so it is expected that it

also works for PCDD/Fs inhibition.
PCDD/Fs concentrations in raw y ash were analyzed too. The
concentration of total PCDD/Fs was 312 ng/g (8.66 ng I-TEQ/g).
The ratio of PCDFs to PCDDs was 2.61. PCDD/Fs result of B series
experiments is shown in Fig. 5. Total PCDD/Fs and TEQ in B-1were
368 ng/g and 11.6 ng I-TEQ/g, respectively. The ratio of PCDFs to
PCDDs was 13, substantially greater than 1, indicating the de novo
route as the main mechanism of PCDD/Fs formation (Huang and
Buekens, 1995). T4CDFs and P5CDFs were the major homologs of
PCDD/Fs, and the T4CDFs proportion accounted for 38.75%. The degree of chlorination of PCDD/Fs was 4.97. With the injection of DS
drying gas, both of PCDDs and PCDFs reduced, especially for PCDFs.
In the B-3 experiment, total PCDD/Fs and TEQ were 111.27 ng/g
and 2.47 ng I-TEQ/g, respectively, i.e. the percentage reduction
was up to 69.5% of PCDD/Fs amount and 78.7% for TEQ. The inhibition efciency of each homolog is shown in Fig. 6, with the range of
26.689.6%. Higher chlorinated homologs were more strongly suppressed. Considering the degree of chlorination decreases (4.97
4.62), the chlorination reaction was supposedly prevented.
Though there are some reported studies on the co-combustion
of sludge and coal (Nadziakiewicz and Koziol, 2003), there are fewer work on the co-combustion of sludge and waste. Mono-combustion of sludge mostly emits less than 0.1 ng I-TEQ/m3 of dioxins
(Deng et al., 2009b; Mininni et al., 2004). In this study, co-pyrolysis/combustion of PVC and sludge were carried out in lab-scale
facility (Fig. 2). The plastic content of medical waste accounts for
approximately 30% (Yan et al., 2011), and PVC is a typical component of HW, so PVC represents HW in this study. The experimental
results are shown in Table 5.
In the co-pyrolysis of PVC and DS (C series), PCDD/Fs yield actually increased from 828 to 1570 ng/g after sludge addition, and TEQ

150
B-1
B-2
B-3

120
90
60
30
20

O8CDF

H7CDF

H6CDF

T4CDF

P5CDF

O8CDD

H7CDD

H6CDD

P5CDD

T4CDD

10

Fig. 5. Effect of dry sludge on PCDD/Fs homolog in B series experiments.

O8CDF

H7CDF

H6CDF

HxCBz

P5CDF

PCBz

T4CDF

TeCBz

O8CDD

20
0

Fig. 4. Effect of sludge on CBz formation from y ash in A series experiments.

Yield, ng/g

60

H7CDD

(b)

B-2
B-3

80

H6CDD

1200
900
600
300
80
40
0

100

A-1
A-2
A-3

P5CDD

(a)

Inhibition,%

1600
1200
800
400
80
40
0

T4CDD

Yield, ng/g

Yield, ng/g

1456

Fig. 6. Inhibition efciency of PCDD/Fs homolog in B series experiments.

Table 5
Experimental result: dioxins during co-combustion in C and D experiments.

C-1
C-2
D-1
D-2

PCDD/Fs, ng/g

I-TEQ, ng/g

Chlorination degree

828 63
1570 143
2850 159
2784 388

6.3 0.48
9.6 1.54
31.5 0.91
24.5 2.7

7.50
7.62
7.15
7.33

increased from 6.28 to 9.58 ng/g, i.e. an increase of PCDD/Fs and

TEQ of 89.6% and 52.5%, respectively. In co-combustion, PCDD/Fs
generation slightly decreased, from 2860 to 2784 ng/g, while TEQ
reduced from 31.5 to 24.5 ng I-TEQ/g, representing 22% inhibition
of TEQ. Comparing C-1 and D-1, there was a much higher PCDD/
Fs yield in D-1 than in C-1, indicating that oxidizing conditions
led to higher emissions, more or less in line with expectations.
The results also indicated that two-stage incineration, with rstly
pyrolysis and secondly combustion, was more favorable for dioxin
control than direct combustion.
PVC pyrolysis or thermal decomposition has been well documented (Gonzalez et al., 2006; Sun et al., 2007). At the onset of
decomposition, the addition of stabilizers in technical PVC is
important. Zhu et al. (2008) investigated the thermal degradation
of PVC and HCl release using a thermogravimetric analyzer coupled
with Fourier transform Infrared spectroscopy (TG-FTIR) as shown
in Fig. 7a. There are two major thermal degradation steps of PVC,
the main product of the rst step (200400 C) is HCl and in the
second step (400560 C) is hydrocarbons. In low temperature
treatment, chlorine is emitted earlier than the organic compounds,
yet these two compounds are quickly emitted in high temperature
heating (900 C) and their emissions are almost simultaneous. Consequently, PCDD/Fs could not be readily formed in C-1, while more
chlorinated compounds were generated in D-1. Both Ferrasse et al.
(2003) and Jiang et al. (2010) studied the combustion characteristics of sludge by TG-FTIR, and they found a signicant emission of
volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at low temperature (300 C)
(Fig. 7b). When sludge was heated in the furnace in these co-pyrolysis/combustion experiments, sludge quickly decomposed and
emitted VOCs which accompanied the chlorine emissions from
PVC. So PCDD/Fs generation of C-2 was higher than the value of
C-1. However, the inuence of VOCs generation from DS on
PCDD/Fs formation was quite slight in D-2, as sufcient hydrocarbons were produced from PVC decomposition in high temperature
(D-1). By contrast, PCDD/Fs concentration decreased, and the process which may have been affected by the ammonia evolving from
sludge.
For both co-pyrolysis and co-combustion, sludge slightly promoted the degree of chlorination of PCDD/Fs (Table 5); possibly

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M. Yan et al. / Waste Management 32 (2012) 14531458

(b) Sludge
100
0.0

DTG

40

Hydrocarbon

-1.0

20

80

TG, %

-0.5

DTG, %/T

TG, %

TG

60

-0.1

70
60

-0.2

VOC

50

-0.3

TG
DTG

40

-1.5

HCl

0.0

90

80

Fix carbon

30
0

200

400

600

800

1000

DTG, %/T

(a) PVC

100

200

400

T, C

600

800

-0.4
1000

T, C

Fig. 7. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of PVC pyrolysis (Zhu et al., 2008) and sludge combustion (Jiang et al., 2010) (heating rate of 30 C/min) (TG, Thermogravimetric;
DTG, Differential Thermogravimetric).

(b)

(a)
60

C-1
C-2

D-1
D-2

40

Fraction, %

50
40
30
20
10

30
20
10
2

2
0

O8CDF

H7CDF

P5CDF

H6CDF

T4CDF

O8CDD

H7CDD

H6CDD

P5CDD

H7CDF

O8CDF

H6CDF

P5CDF

T4CDF

O8CDD

H7CDD

H6CDD

T4CDD

P5CDD

0
T4CDD

Fraction, %

50

Fig. 8. Homolog patterns of PCDD/Fs in co-pyrolysis/combustion of C and D series experiments.

the metal in sludge acted as the chlorination catalyst (Table 2). The
homolog pattern of PCDD/Fs is shown in Fig. 8. Highly chlorinated
species, especially O8CDF and H7CDF, predominated in PCDD/Fs.
Since the chlorine content of rigid PVC was over 50% and there
was active catalyst of CuO (3%). PCDFs formation was more favored
over PCDDs formation with the ratio of PCDFs to PCDDs being over
5.0 in all experiments.
4. Conclusions
In these experiments, two pieces of valuable information have
been observed as follows:
1. Sludge drying produced a high content of NH3 and HCN. These
nitrogen containing compounds could be used to effectively
suppress the formation of chlorinated organic pollutants
including HxCBz and PCDD/Fs. Also, a lower concentration of
NO was detected after the spray of the sludge drying gas.
2. Co-combustion/pyrolysis of PVC and dry sludge did not completely work as initially predicted. Hence co-pyrolysis/combustion of HW and sludge should be further investigated in lab
scale and real scale furnace.

Acknowledgements
This study was nancially supported by Major State Basic
Research Development Program of China (973 Program) (No.
2011CB201500) and Scholarship Award for Excellent Doctoral

Student granted by Chinese Ministry ofEducation. The authors convey our grateful acknowledgement to Dr. Amrita Pal for her help in
revising the text of this paper (amritapal2@gmail.com, Columbia
University, New York City, NY).
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