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What Is a Gaseous Waste Incinerator?

According to the Environmental Council of the United Kingdom, incineration is the controlled combustion of waste in order to destroy it or transform it into less hazardous, less bulky and more controllable constituents. Incineration is used to dispose of a wide range of waste streams including gaseous waste. A gaseous waste incinerator is designed to manage disposal of hazardous gaseous waste, while complying with modern pollution-control measures.

  1. Introduction

    • A waste incinerator is basically an environmentally friendly, high-technology "furnace" that is used to convert medical, hazardous and non-recyclable waste into maximum amounts of energy, while producing the least amount of residue. Typical modern incinerators have combustion chambers that provide optimum conditions that facilitate high conversion of the hazardous wastes into less harmful forms at minimal costs.

    Types

    • Types of incinerators include gaseous waste incinerators, solid waste incinerators, medical waste incinerators and industrial waste incinerators. The type of waste incinerator and choice of combustion chamber used to convert hazardous and non-recyclable waste depends on the characteristics of the non-recyclable waste. The characteristics of non-recyclable waste, on the other hand, is determined by, among other things, the levels of chlorine content (high levels of chlorine are poisonous), the density of the waste product (mass per unit volume) and its homogeneity (the quality of uniformity in structure and composition) of the non-recyclable waste.

    How It Works

    • Typical gaseous waste incinerators consist of the kiln (primary combustion chamber), an afterburner (secondary combustion chamber) and an air pollution control chamber. Gaseous waste is pumped into a super hot (more than 1,800 degrees F) ceramic-lined combustion kiln and atomized into fine droplets. The atomized droplets are injected into the afterburner where the heat (more than 2,200 degrees F) breaks down their chemical bonds into atoms. The atoms recombine with oxygen from the air in the chamber and form stable compounds like carbon dioxide and water. Gases and liquids exiting the afterburner are cooled and cleaned in the air pollution control chamber.

    Benefits

    • Gaseous incinerators destroy or detoxify hazardous gases, significantly reduce fuel costs, eliminate odor concerns, have low space requirements and require minimum operation attention. According to Tornado Combustion Technologies, a design and manufacturing company based in Alberta, Canada, there are gaseous waste incinerators that maintain up to 99.9 percent efficiency at all times regardless of external weather conditions.

    Applications

    • Gaseous waste incinerators are designed to oxidize most hazardous gases, including hydrocarbon and sulfur, into more stable gases. They have found application in many industries, including the oil and gas industry. In the oil and gas industry, companies that encounter hazardous gases and make use of gaseous waste incinerators include those that manufacture bio gas from organic products like animal excrement.

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