Air emissions from the incineration of hazardous waste

Abstract

In the United States over the last ten years, concern over important disposal practices of the past has manifested itself in the passage of a series of federal and state-level hazardous waste clean-up and control statutes of unprecedented scope. The impact of these various statutes will be a significant modification of waste management practices. The more traditional and lowest cost methods of direct landfilling, storage in surface impoundments and deep-well injection will be replaced, in large measure, by waste minimization at the source of generation, waste reuse, physical/chemical/biological treatment, incineration and chemical stabilization/solidification methods. Of all of the "terminal" treatment technologies, properly-designed incineration systems are capable of the highest overall degree of destruction and control for the broadest range of hazardous waste streams. Substantial design and operational experience exists and a wide variety of commercial systems are available. Consequently, significant growth is anticipated in the use of incineration and other thermal destruction methods. The objective of this paper is to examine the current state of knowledge regarding air emissions from hazardous waste incineration in an effort to put the associated technological and environmental issues into perspective.