Conversion of soil remediating incinerators into industrial waste incinerators

Abstract

Soil Remediating Incinerators (SRIs) in the United States (US) were primarily deployed at United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Superfund sites and sometimes at commercial sites in the last two decades. The remediation of these sites by incineration seemed to peak in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The decline in the use of these incinerators is due to changing economics (price per ton of soil processed), challenges in the system permitting and siting, competing technologies (such as high capacity direct and indirect-fired Thermal Desorption Systems), and the incorrect public perception that these systems endanger human health and pollute the environment. Many of these sophisticated, well-proven transportable units are currently idle while applications for them are being sought. Since the domestic market has changed, leading companies have started converting these units into Indus trial Waste Incinerators (IWIs) for international deployment. The primary issues for conversion are economic, regulatory and technical. The economic aspects include country-specific project financing issues and the sometimes high costs of retrofitting existing systems. Regulatory issues include stack gas, ash and wastewater discharge criteria. Some Asian and Latin American countries have more stringent criteria than those in the US, requiring expensive upgrade of air pollution controls. The technical challenges of waste preparation and feed systems for multiple-feed IWIs are significantly greater than those of single feed soil remediation systems. The waste feeds for IWIs are typically received in bulk shipments, tankers and drums; their physical proper ties present a variety of material handling challenges; and their compositions represent a wide range of complex waste profiles that further complicate meeting stringent discharge criteria. These issues, opportunities and challenges associated with conversion are discussed in this paper. Available data on the feed characteristics and performance of IWIs are also presented.