Solid Waste Treatment Methods

Prepared by: Eng.Sabah Noori

LGP-South central Office
Cyclone Melting System
Cyclone melting thermally treats hazardous dusts and liquids by turning them into a glass that can be landfilled.
Electric arc furnace dust, smelting wastes with heavy metals, and other similar streams are ground to a fine
powder and fed to a cyclone acting as a combustion chamber and operating at about 2900F. This high
temperature fuses most non-volatiles, even silica-based sands. Stack gas control may be necessary and process
waste fuels may act as the fuel source.
Incineration Systems
One of the most effective means of dealing with many wastes, to reduce their harmful potential and often to convert them
to useful energy, is incineration. Obviously, highly aqueous or noncombustible solids would not be incinerable.

Also, always consider the effluents from this alternative to be sure they haven't become an even greater disposal problem.
For example, ash produced may have higher than acceptable concentrations of metals, or exhaust gases may contain
problematic substances.

Incineration offers the following advantages over land burial or disposal at sea:
Complete destruction of even the most hazardous materials,
Significant volume and weight reduction,
On site, immediate disposal without significant storage volume,
Ash residue and air emissions are manageable disposal issues, and
Heat recovery can often provide significant economic benefits.

However, incineration is one of the more costly disposal systems to purchase and may require specially skilled operators.
Also, careful consideration of the operating energy requirements should be factored into the evaluation of alternatives,
especially where wastes have significant water content.
Infrared Oxidation
Wastes are fed onto a belt moving through the primary combustion chamber in which oxidation of the material is
produced by infrared radiant heat transfer plus the presence of air (or oxygen). The waste gases are fed into a
secondary gas-fueled combustion chamber where contaminants are further oxidized and heat is recovered to
preheat incoming air.
Plasma Methods
Extremely high temperature plasma arc torch waste disposal methods decompose complex organics into
hydrogen, carbon dioxide, carbon (coke), and HCl. Electric plasma torches generate temperatures in excess of
18,000F breaking the waste material into elemental atoms in a plasma. As the atoms cool, they release intense
ultraviolet light which also aides in waste destruction. Effluent gases are cooled and sprayed with caustic to
remove particulates and acid gases. This technology is used primarily for complete destruction of PCBs and
dioxins.
Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis subjects wastes to high temperatures under oxygen-starved conditions, thereby evaporating or
thermally degrading (but not oxidizing) the wastes. The coke residues and some of the hydrocarbons are burned
to provide heat for the process. The remainder can often be recovered and recycled.

Pyrolysis has been used to treat most organic liquids and solids, especially oily wastes. It was originally
developed for hydrocarbon removal from soil, but is well suited for hydrocarbon recovery from sludges. The
system may include a scrubber to remove acid gases.
Stabilization/Fixation
Stabilization, or Fixation, seals wastes in a solid matrix to minimize or prevent leaching. Cement-based,
pozzolanic, thermoplastic or polymer materials are commonly used. Portland cement is often used as a first step
to stabilize fly ash or blast furnace slag. Thermoplastic materials (bitumen, paraffin, and polyethylene) are more
effective in preventing leaching. Organic polymers (urea-formaldehyde, vinyl esterstyrene, and polyester resins)
are also available.

These techniques can be used as waste site remediation and have proven effective for solvent, metal, oil,
electroplating, and heavy metal solid wastes. Cement-based processes are particularly effective for metal and
heavy metal wastes. The possibility of subsequent leaching must be considered in the design.
Thermal Distillation
Thermal distillation heats wastes in a high temperature, nitrogen atmosphere to vaporize and recover volatile
compounds, typically oil and liquefied petroleum products.

The process occurs in three distillation columns in series. Waste enters the first column where it is heated to
about 400F, driving off water and light hydrocarbons that are condensed and separated.

The solid waste from this first column is then heated to 2,000F driving off the remaining heavier petroleum
constituents. Solid particulates remaining at this point are generally inert. Heating is often performed using
induction or infrared heaters.

Thermal Distillation cannot be used to treat heavy metals. Further, coking may be a problem with certain organic
waste streams.
Vitrification
Vitrification is the technique of using high temperatures to fuse hazardous waste into a glassy solid material
from which no hazardous materials will leach. Cyclone melting and most plasma technologies produce vitrified
products.

It is generally best applied to solid wastes containing heavy metals. It can also be used to produce inert
aggregates for construction. However, the high temperatures require exotic materials of construction making this
an expensive alternative.
White Rot Fungus
White rot fungus is a microorganism with proven effectiveness in degrading lignin (the principle chemical in
wood) and a host of aliphatic, aromatic, and heterocyclic organic compounds.

It has been demonstrated to successfully treat Kraft pulping process waste and to degrade lindane, benzo(a)
pyrene, DDT, TCDD and PCBs.

This technology has been demonstrated only on laboratory scale equipment.