Thermal Waste Treatment

This chapter addresses the benefits and drawbacks of various thermal destruction and removal technologies. Chemical reactions at elevated temperatures can yield products that are either good or bad from an environmental perspective. This chapter focuses on the thermal reactions that can be used to treat numerous wastes. Complete combustion may also result in the production of molecular nitrogen (N2) when nitrogen-containing organics are burned, such as in the combustion of methylamine. Incomplete combustion can produce a variety of compounds. Some are more toxic than the original compounds being oxidized, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dioxins, furans, and CO. The organic portion of wastes has heat value. This means that this portion of any waste can be completely destroyed using principles based on thermodynamics, ultimately yielding carbon dioxide and water. This depends mainly on whether toxic and otherwise harmful molecules react to become less or more toxic or harmful molecules, or are transformed into molecules that are more or less mobile in the environment, which could mean greater exposures and risks. Recalcitrant waste constituents can be degraded using these techniques but caution should always be applied as improper applications of thermal technologies can lead to harm caused by products of incomplete combustion (PICs) and other pollutants. © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Duke Scholars

Author Daniel Vallero Civil and Environmental Engineering