Thermal treatment and decontamination of mercury‐contaminated waste: Recent developments and comparative evaluation

Abstract

AbstractThe land disposal restriction regulations have necessitated development of technologies for the treatment of wastes and soils containing mercury. Of all the treatment methods, thermal technologies are the most advanced and proven for a variety of mercury‐contaminated waste materials.During the past few years, a number of thermal treatment processes have been developed both for listed and characteristic waste. A review of the technologies identified six that are in either commercial or pilot plant stages. The biggest volumes of waste currently occur in the gas processing and caustic‐chlorine industries, so most of the technologies being used appear to have been developed around the characteristics of these two wastes.This article discusses the characteristics of each of the six available thermal treatment processes, and describes the types of mercury‐contaminated wastes these technologies have been designed to handle.