Toxic combustion by-products: Generation, separation, cleansing, containment

Focus of this paper is on diagnosis, control, and containment of potentially toxic combustion byproducts when mixed wastes are treated at elevated temperatures. Such byproducts fall into several categories: acid gases, particulates, metals, organics. Radionuclides are treated as a subset of metals, while organics are divided into two subclasses: products of incomplete combustion, and principal organic hazardous constituents. An extended flue gas cleaning system is described which can be used to contain potentially toxic organic emissions and recycle the hazrdous materials for further treatment; it uses oxygen rather than air to reduce total quantities of emissions, improve efficiency of oxidation, and minimize NOx emissions. Flue gas recycling is used for cooling and for containing all potentially toxic emissions. Three thermal treatment unit operations are used in series for more effective process control; three emission separation and containment unit operations are also used in series in the toxic emission containment system. Real time diagnostic hardware/software are used. Provision is made for automatic storage, separation of hazardous materials, commodity regeneration, and recycling of potentially harmful constituents. The greenhouse gas CO2 is recovered and not emitted to the atmosphere