Physical and chemical treatment

processes
Unit 4
 Physical Treatment
• Filtration
• Separation by density differences
• Immobilization
• Shredding and grinding
• Compacting
 Filtration
Based on how the suspended solids are retained and removed,
one can distinguish three kinds of filtration:
• depth filtration (suspensions are retained inside a porous
medium)
• cake filtration (suspensions are retained at the surface of the
filter medium)
• cross-flow filtration (suspensions are flown along the filter
medium).
Small scale deep bed filter with filter medium Filtration with a mud cake
from fabric

Cross-flow filtration
Types of Filters

Screen filter
Types of Filters

Vacuum drum filter

Types of Filters

Filter press
Separation by density differences
Flotation Sedimentation

Centrifugation
 Immobilization
• Encapsulation

Terra-BondTM waste encapsulation synthetic

aggregates
 Shredding and grinding
• Shredding of waste reduces the size of the waste material and
it is usually done prior to the incineration step

Solid waste shredder - Powershredder 1800 -

by Powerscreen
 Compacting
• Reduced the volume of the collected or deposited waste

Husmann waste compactors Landfill compactation

 Chemical Treatment
• Chemical treatment involves altering a waste’s
chemical composition, structure, and
properties through chemical reactions.
 Removal of Acidic Pollutants

• For removal of Acidic Pollutants there are three methods to remove the acidic
pollutants: wet, wet-dry and dry-scrubbing.

• The method wet scrubbers is based upon the absorption of acidic gases in an
alkaline liquid phase, whereby, depending on the alkaline solid used, calcium,
magnesium or sodium gypsum slag is generated.

• A wet-dry system uses a spray absorption process. A neutralizing solution or

suspension is sprayed into the hot flue gas to simultaneously cool and neutralize
it.

• Absorption processes are also utilized for dry scrubber method. The flue gases
pass through a fine powder alkaline mist such as Ca(OH)2 powder and the
reaction products are removed from the flue gas stream by a filter.
 Denitrification
• During the incineration at high temperatures, nitrogen oxides form. Because of
the hazard and the legitimate limit for nitrogen oxides the denitrification is always
achieved by using a primary and secondary process. Primary denitrification
prevents the formation of nitrogen oxides in the combustion chamber. Secondary
denitrification is divided into processes: catalytic reduction and non-catalytic
reduction.

• In the non-catalytic reduction ammonia, urea, liquid manure, or similar

substances are used as reducing agents and are injected into the
combustion/catalytic chamber. At temperatures of about 1000 °C, the reducing
agent reacts with the NOx and forms oxygen and nitrogen (N2).

• And catalytic reduction can achieve a high denitrification rate of up to 85 %.

 Removal of Dioxins and Furans

• Residual MSW contains certain significant dioxin and furan concentrations. In

spite of combustion with minimum temperatures, enough retention time, enough
air supply and complete incineration the concentrations lies much over the
legitimate limits.

• To reduce dioxin and furan emission, the method of primary and secondary
minimization measures is used as standard technique.

• Primary minimization means reducing CO and unburned residues by improving

combustion, reducing the concentration of particulates in the flue gas, improving
the combustion configuration and elimination the use of electrostatic
precipitators.

• The secondary measures include two processes, which remove dioxins from flue
gas: Dioxin catalytic converter and Removal with activated carbon or coke. With
the help of modern pollution control technology, it is possible to stay well blow
the required emission limits.
 Chemical precipitation

Hydroxide precipitation
Sulfide precipitation
Carbonate precipitation
Other precipitation processes
Solidification and stabilization (S/S)
 Chemical oxidation and reduction
Chemical oxidation
• Oxidation with chlorine (Cl-) und hypochlorite salt (OCl-)
• Oxidation with chlorine dioxide (ClO2)
• Oxidation with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)
• Oxidation with potassium permanganate (KMnO4)
• Oxidation with oxygen (O2)
• Oxidation with ozone (O3)

Chemical reduction
• Reduction of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and sulfites (SO3-)
• Reduction with metals (iron, zinc)
• Reduction with sodium dithionite (Na2S2O4)
• Reduction with hydrazine (N2H4)
• Reduction with sodium borohydride (BH4)
• Reduction with hydrogen peroxide (HO2-)
Pervaporation
Ozone treatment