POSCEA3: A SuperCritical Water Oxidation process to destroy organic liquid and solid waste

International audienceIn case of organic liquid waste treatment, SuperCritical Water Oxidation (SCWO) offers a promising process to destroy radioactive organic liquids. Under supercritical conditions (P> 22.1 MPa ; T> 647 K), water, organic compounds and gases are completely miscible enabling a fast and complete oxidation reaction. Ionic contaminants remained in the aqueous effluent can be further recovered, for example by conventional precipitation or adsorption processes, leading to a decontaminated final aqueous effluent. The gases generated by this low temperature process are only CO$_2$, O$_2$ and N$_2$, without producing by-products such as NOx or SOx compared to other thermal oxidation processes