Abstract
ABSTRACT Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in the flue gas from two types of waste incinerators (municipal solid waste incinerators and hazardous waste incinerators) the most commonly used in China were investigated in this study. The PCDD/F emissions from the stack gas of the waste incinerators showed a large variation from 0.016 to 0.29 ng I-TEQ m–3 with an average value of 0.103 ng I-TEQ m–3. The emission factors of PCDD/Fs were in the range of 0.056–0.607 µg I-TEQ t–1 (average 0.235 µg I-TEQ t–1) for municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs) and 0.07–3.27 µg I-TEQ t–1 (average 1.03 µg I-TEQ t–1) for hazardous waste incinerators (HWIs), respectively. It was estimated that 10.2–88.0 mg I-TEQ (average 35.0 mg I-TEQ) and 1.13–53.0 mg I-TEQ (average 17.1 mg I-TEQ) of PCDD/Fs were annually released to the atmosphere, respectively from MSWIs and HWIs. The level and congener patterns of 17 species of PCDD/Fs in the ambient air and in soil samples around the MSWIs and HWIs were investigated to evaluate the influence of PCDD/F emission on the environment. The PCDD/F concentrations in the ambient air from the 5 MSWIs and 4 HWIs ranged from 0.088 to 13.9 pg I-TEQ m–3 with an average value of 0.185 pg I-TEQ m–3. The soil samples in the vicinity of MSWIs and HWIs presented concentrations between 0.68 and 16.0 ng I-TEQ kg−1 with an average value of 3.98 ng I-TEQ kg–1. This study showed that PCDD/F emission from the incineration plants had an obvious impact on the surrounding ambient air.
Highlights
Municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration in China has been boosted more than twelve fold in the past decade, in response to the rapid increase of MSW (Lu et al, 2017; Zhu et al, 2018)
Pham et al (2019a) reported that concentrations of PCDD/Fs in flue gas were in the range of 13.4–17.6 pg TEQ m–3 for municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs) and 12.7–438 pg TEQ m–3 for medical waste incinerators (MWIs), respectively
All of the investigated MSWIs exhibited a small variation in PCDD/F emissions to the atmosphere (0.051–0.078 ng I-TEQ m–3 with an average value of 0.058 ng I-TEQ m–3), and the emission levels of 5 MSWIs were below the current standard in China (0.1 ng I-TEQ m–3)
Summary
Municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration in China has been boosted more than twelve fold in the past decade, in response to the rapid increase of MSW (Lu et al, 2017; Zhu et al, 2018). The emission of PCDD/Fs has recently been investigated extensively in the waste incineration process (Bie et al, 2007; Choi et al, 2008; Gao et al, 2009; Ni et al, 2009; Zhu et al, 2018). Choi et al (2008) investigated dioxins in gases emitted from MSWIs and HWIs, finding the concentration of PCDD/Fs ranged from 0.05 to 609.27 ng TEQ Nm–3. Gao et al (2009) revealed the stack gas emissions of PCDD/Fs from hospital waste incinerators (HWIs) exhibited a large variation (0.08–31.6 ng I-TEQ Nm–3). Zhu et al (2018) revealed that the concentrations of PCDD/F emissions in stack gas from 6 MSWIs were in the range of 0.007–0.059 ng TEQ Nm–3. The emission factors of PCDD/Fs from 6 MSWIs varied from 0.027 to 0.225 mg I-TEQ t–1, Copyright The Author(s).
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