REVIEW Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Waste Incineration

EU energy and environmental policy in waste management leads to increasing interest in de-veloping methods for waste disposal with minimum emissions of greenhouse gases and minimum environmental impacts. From the point of view of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, waste incineration and waste co-combustion is very acceptable method of waste disposal. Two factors are important for attaining very low N2O emissions from waste incineration, particularly for waste with higher nitrogen content (e.g. sewage sludge, leather, etc.): temperature of incineration over 900◦C and avoiding selective noncatalytic reduction (SNCR) de-NOx method based on urea. For reduction of N2O emissions retrofitting such plants to ammonia-based SNCR is recommendable. The modern selective catalytic reduction facilities for de-NOx at waste incineration plants are only negligible source of N2O. Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential approximately 300 times higher than CO2. Being chemically inert in the troposphere with a long lifetime (110—150 years), N2O can reach the stratosphere where it is destroyed by photolysi