Non-thermal plasma in waste composting facilities: From a laboratory-scale experiment to a scaled-up economic model

Abstract

Waste treatment plants emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere, which can be both toxic and unpleasant for their smell. Biofiltration is a valuable option to decrease the amount of emitted VOCs under stationary conditions, while it suffers from problems under transient conditions. To overcome this drawback, an additional treatment before the biofiltration stage might be an effective strategy. In the present work, we evaluated the plasma treatment on some typical VOCs (α-pinene, ethyl isovalerate, and dimethyl disulphide) by considering, in particular, the energy cost of different removal rates and the consequent economic costs of scaling the laboratory setup to real-size plants. Depending on the desired target, the operating costs of different process schemes have been considered, and the most convenient operational mode has been identified. Our results suggest that the use of non-thermal plasmas as a pretreatment of a biofiltration stage in the waste treatment might be a valuable option.