Design and Operation of a Versatile Pollution Control/Liquid Waste Thermal Destruction System With Maximum Energy Recovery

This paper describes an innovative fume incinerator which supplies all the steam needs of an industrial plant by burning waste liquid fuels, yet is flexible enough to match the instantaneous, hourly, weekly and seasonal variations in steam usage of the plant. Even though fume input is nearly constant, the load can be followed by adjusting the fuel input while furnace temperatures vary in a range above that needed to destroy the selected wastes. A steam accumulator reduces peak steam demand on the boilers. Ash from the waste oils accumulates on the furnace refractory, and boiler and air preheater tubes, requiring periodic cleaning. By maintaining sufficient minimum temperatures, effective atomization and mixing, these systems can destroy liquid wastes containing difficult chemicals such as chlorinated phenol and benzene compounds. The required temperatures can be determined by plug-flow thermal destruction in the laboratory, and confirmed by testing typical materials in the full-scale oxidizer.