Characterization of municipal solid waste incineration and flue gas emission under anoxic environment in Tibet Plateau.

Zeng Dan,Wenwu Zhou,A Qiong,Bu Duo,Jing Wang,Yuechi Che,Qiongda Zhuoma,Zhiyong Han,Guanyi Chen,Wang Yang,Xuebin Lv,Peng Zhou

doi:10.1007/s11356-021-15977-x

Abstract

Waste incineration is a process of full combustion reaction between waste and oxygen at high temperature. It is a new problem whether the special natural environmental conditions of Tibet Plateau, such as low air pressure, low oxygen content, and low temperature, will affect the waste incineration in the plateau area. In this work, the influence of different parameters on MSW incineration efficiency and flue gas emission were investigated. The results showed that the temperatures exhibited a significant impact on the flue gas emission. Under the lower temperature, CO was determined to be the main pollutant. With the increase of temperature, NOx became the main pollutant. The optimal temperature range of flue gas emission was between 800 and 900°C. A slight negative pressure in incinerator was benefit for incineration system safety and flue gas emissions. The optimal range was -50 to 0Pa. Lower oxygen content (3-6%) in the incinerator affected the incineration efficiency and flue gas emission. Meanwhile, the high oxygen content had no obvious impact on the flue gas emission, but the cost increased and the service life of the incinerator was affected. The optimal oxygen content in the incinerator was controlled at 6-8%. Furthermore, the air temperatures, pressures, and oxygen content in the natural environment had no significant effect on MSW incineration process. Increasing the air volume would bring about the increase of N2 in the incinerator. This work provides the basic data support for MSW incineration technology in plateau area.

Highlights

It can be seen from the table that the contents of heavy metals Zn, Cu and Pb in the fly ash from the waste incineration in plateau area are similar to those in the fly ash from the waste incineration in plain area
Based on the analysis of typical components and physical characteristics of waste in Tibet plateau, the results showed that the bulk density of Lhasa domestic waste is 389kg/m3, the moisture content is 33.8%, and the mean low calorific value is 6935.5kj/kg
A waste incineration power plant in Lhasa city in Tibet is taken as the experimental object

Summary

Introduction

It can be seen from the table that the contents of heavy metals Zn, Cu and Pb in the fly ash from the waste incineration in plateau area are similar to those in the fly ash from the waste incineration in plain area This may be due to the economic development of Tibet in recent years, which leads to a large amount of waste such as electronic products, pigments, batteries and so on. This may be because Cd and Hg combine with Cl in fly ash to form chlorides, which changes the volatility of metals, resulting in high content of such heavy metals in fly ash (Liang et al.,2014) This shows that the content of chlorine in the waste in plateau area is higher than that in other areas. What’s more, the content of heavy metal Ba in fly ash is high, which may come from traffic wastes and fossil fuels

Methods

Results

Conclusion