Solid Waste Management

Technique:
Incineration
Incinerator
Introduction and Efficiency

Engineering Design

Working of incinerator

Waste or by-product-Ash and Disposal

Metals and Inorganic Toxins

Advantage: Waste to Energy Generation

Problems caused by Incineration

 Introduction
 Given all the problems of landfills, people have turned to a number
of other means of solid waste disposal, including incineration.
 More than three-quarters of the material that constitutes municipal
solid waste is easily combustible.
 Because paper, plastic, food and yard waste are composed largely
of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, they are excellent candidates for
incineration,
 The process of burning waste materials to reduce their volume and
mass and sometimes to generate electricity or heat is therefore
called incineration.
 Efficiency
An efficient incinerator operating under ideal conditions may reduce

The volume of solid waste by up to 90 percent

The weight of the waste by approximately 75 percent

although the reductions vary greatly depending on the incinerator and the composition
of the MSW.
Incinerator:
Engineering
Design
A municipal mass-burn
waste-to-energy
incinerator.
In this plant, MSW is
combusted and the
exhaust is filtered.
Remaining ash is
disposed of in a landfill.
 Working of Incinerator
A mass burn municipal solid waste incinerator

Typically at this incinerator, MSW is sorted and certain recyclables are diverted to recycling
centers.

The remaining material is dumped or “tipped” from a refuse truck onto a platform where certain
materials such as metals are identified and removed.

A moving grate or other delivery system transfers the waste to a furnace.

Heat is released as combustion rapidly converts much of the waste into carbon dioxide and water,
which are released into the atmosphere.
 Waste or by-product-Ash

Particulates, more commonly known as ash in the solid waste industry, are an end product of
combustion.

Ash is the residual nonorganic material that does not combust during incineration.

 Residue collected underneath the furnace is known as bottom ash and residue collected beyond the
furnace is called fly ash.
 Disposal of Ash
Because incineration often does not operate under ideal conditions, ash typically fills roughly
one-quarter the volume of the pre combustion material.

Disposal of this ash is determined by its concentration of toxic metals.

The ash is tested for toxicity by leaching it with a weak acid.

If the leachate is relatively low in concentration of contaminants such as lead and cadmium, the
ash can be disposed of in a landfill.

Ash deemed safe can also be used for other purposes such as fill in road construction or as an
ingredient in cement blocks and cement flooring.

If deemed toxic, the ash goes to a special ash landfill designed specifically for toxic substances.
Metals and Inorganic toxins

 Metals and other toxins in the MSW may be released to the atmosphere or may remain in the ash,
depending on the pollutant, the specific incineration process, and the type of technology used.

 Exhaust gases from the combustion process, such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, move
through collectors and other devices like scrubbers that reduce their emission to the atmosphere.

 Acidic gases such as hydrogen chloride (HCl), which results from the incineration of certain
materials including plastic, are recovered in a scrubber, neutralized, and sometimes treated further
before disposal in a regular landfill or ash landfill.
Advantages: Waste to Energy System

Incineration also releases a great deal of heat energy that is often used in a boiler immediately
adjacent to the furnace either to heat the incinerator building or to generate electricity, using a
process similar to that of a coal, natural gas, or nuclear power plant.

When heat generated by incineration is used rather than released to the atmosphere, it is known as
a waste-to-energy system.

Although energy generation is a positive benefit of incineration, as we shall see, there are a number
of environmental problems with incineration as a method of waste disposal.
Some Problems with Incineration
Though incinerators address some of the problems of landfills, they have problems of their own.

In order to cover the costs of construction and operation of an incinerator, tipping fees are
charged, just as they are charged for disposal of waste in a MSW landfill.

Generally, tipping fees are higher at incinerators than at landfills; national averages are around
$70 per ton.

The siting of an incinerator raises NIMBY and environmental justice issues similar to those of
landfill siting.
Contd…

An incinerator may release air pollutants such as organic compounds from the incomplete
combustion of plastics and metals contained in the solid waste that was burned.

Some environmental scientists believe that incinerators are a poor solution to solid waste
disposal because they produce ash that is more concentrated and thus more toxic than the
original MSW.

In addition, because incinerators are generally quite large and expensive to build, they require
large quantities of MSW on a daily basis in order to burn efficiently and to be profitable.
In order to support these costs, communities that use incinerators may be less likely to encourage
recycling.

Rate structures and other programs can be designed to encourage MSW reduction and diversion,
with the goal of using incineration only as a last resort.

Incinerators may not completely burn all the waste deposited in them.

Plant operators can monitor and modify the oxygen content and temperature of the burn, but
because the contents of MSW are extremely variable and lumped all together, it is difficult to have
a uniform burn.
Inevitably, MSW contains some toxic material.

The concentration of toxics in MSW is generally quite low relative to all the paper, plastic, glass,
and organics in the waste.

However, rather than being dissipated to the atmosphere, most metals remain in the bottom ash or
are captured in the fly ash.

Therefore, incinerator ash that is deemed toxic must be disposed of in a special landfill for toxic
materials.
THE END