Waste Incineration & Heat

Recovery
at Roche Ireland Ltd.
Andrew Carden

Pharmaceuticals

 Roche Ireland Ltd: Bulk Pharmaceutical

Manufacturing Site.
Operates under an Integrated Pollution Control
License issued by Environmental Protection Agency.
Emissions to Atmosphere
Emissions to Water
Emissions to Land

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Background

 Legislation
1987 Air Pollution Act
Air Emissions within EPA Limits

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Legislation

 A number of technologies examined to meet

legislative requirements
Criteria for Technology Selection
Varying Calorific Load
Varying Volumetric Load
Organochlorides
Wide Range Compounds
Economic Factors
Emission Limits
Selected Technology: Direct Fired Thermal
Incineration

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Technology Selection

 Air Emissions Reduction Project consisted of two

parts:
Fume Collection system
Incinerator Package

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Project Overview

Volatile Organic Carbon Vapour Collection

Collect VOC Vapours from Chemical Reactors, Dryers
Network of piping with safety equipment:Flow, Pressure and Oxygen monitoring
Deflagration, Detonation, Hydraulic
and Dynamic Flame Arrestors to meet
German TRbF 100 standard

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Fume Collection System

Fume Collection System

Vent collection designed to
Prevent Explosion
Contain Explosion

Low Oxygen High Solvent

50% MOC

X
MOC

UEL

X
Contain Explosion

Flammable
Region

Prevent Explosion
X
X
X

X = Areas of Operation

LEL

High Oxygen
- 1

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Flammability Diagram

Low Solven

 Kraft, Energie & Umwelttechnik (KEU)

10.6 MW
Steam Generation using waste heat from incinerator
Incineration of Waste Liquids from Site Production
Processes
Odour Reductions by Incinerating Biological Waste
Treatment off gases

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Incinerator Package

Pharmaceuticals

Incinerator Package

 Operational Qualification Tests:

To Test Incinerator to Design Limit
Contractual Test Burns with KEU
Test Burns with EPA
Examples of Tests:
Destruction Removal Effieiency including HCl
removal and Dioxin formation
High and Low Thermal Capacity
NOx removal

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Commissioning: Test Burns

 Legal Compliance
IPC licence.
EC Directive.
Heat Recovery
Capacity of 10,000 kg/hr of steam
Current generation at approx 5000 kg/hr,
meeting large proportion of site demands
Reduction in offsite waste incineration costs
Incineration up to 760 kg/hr on site

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Benefits

 January
Diesel

1999: Change from Heavy fuel oil to

June
2000: Air reduction leading to Fuel
reduction
June

2000: Stack gas plume elimination

December 2000: New state of the art in situ HCl

laser analyser
Future
July

2003: Change from Diesel to Natural gas

Pharmaceuticals

Continuous Improvements