Thermal Treatment/Disposal:

Incineration
Chapter 12
 Activity
• Why use incineration?
• What are the drawbacks?
 Regulations
• Historical perspective
• HW incinerators vs. cement kilns and light
aggregate kilns and industrial boilers and
furnaces
General Schematic
 Types of Incinerators
• Rotary kiln
• Fixed hearth • Fume
• Liquid injection • Multiple chamber
• Cement and lime kilns • Multiple hearth
• Fluidized bed • Cyclonic
• Boiler systems • Auger combustor
• Oxygen enriched • Two-stage (starved
• Infrared air)
• Catalytic
• Molten salt
 Other Thermal Processes
• Plasma arc pyrolysis
• Microwave discharge
• Advanced electrical reactor
• In situ vitrification
• Wet air oxidation
• Supercritical water oxidation
• Calcination
• Thermal desorption
 Classifications of Incinerators
Grate Suspension
• Open “rack” • Sand or alumina bed
• Stationary or moving fluidized with air
• Air circulation • Relatively uniform
• Large and irregular feed size
wastes
Hearth
• Solid “plate”
• Variety of waste
Typical Process Flow Diagram

Waste

Storage

Pre-processing/blending

Pollution
Incineration Flue Gas
Control

Ash Stabilization Effluent

Landfill POTW
Combustion Requirements

3 T’s
+
Excess O2
Typical Excess Air Reactions

CHCl + O2 + N2  CO2 + H2O + HCl +

O2 + N2 + heat
 Flue Gas Quench
• Cool to:
– 500 - 700oF for spray dryer
– 180oF for low-temperature equipment
• Air or water
• Concurrent or counter-current flow
 Air Pollution Control
• Pollution:
– Particulates (including 10 priority metals)
– Acid gases
• Systems
– Wet
– Dry
 Trial Burn

Test incinerator
– Principal organic hazardous constituents
(POHCs) destruction and removal
efficiencies (DREs)
– HCl
– Particulates
– CO
– Metals
– Dioxin and furans
 POHC DRE
At least 99.99% on all selected POHCs
during trial burn

Win  Wout
DRE  100
Win
 HCl Emissions

Emission no greater than larger of

4 lb/h or 1% of HCl in stack gas
 Particulate Emissions

At most 0.08 grains/dscf corrected to 7% O2

or
180 mg/dscm corrected to 7% O2
 Emissions Example
Example 12-2 (p. 746)
Does incinerator performance meet
requirements?
 CO Emissions

100 ppm by volume as a 60-minute rolling

average corrected to 7% O2 on a dry basis
 CO and Particulate Example
Example 12-11 (p. 804)

14
Pc  Pm
21  Ydry
Ywet
Ydry 
1 w
Combustion Efficiency

At least 99.99%

CCO2
CE  100
CCO2  CCO
Dioxin and Furan Emissions

0.4 ng/dscm
or
0.0001%
 PCBs

At least 99.9999% DRE for liquid

Dwell time of 2 s at 1200  100 oC and 3% EA in stack

gas
OR
Dwell time of 1.5 s at 1600  100 oC and 2% EA in stack
gas
 Design

Example 12-7 (p. 765)