|  | Public Health Safety | Public Health

Types of Trash Incinerators

Burning trash is an age-old custom. In the middle of the 20th century, community incinerators became popular for disposing solid waste. Huge incinerators were built outside communities, and the trash collected by municipal workers was burned. When air pollution began to show its effect on human health, communities started disposing of trash in other less harmful ways. Trash incinerators are still in use, but with more advanced systems that filter harmful air contaminants before releasing the smoke into the atmosphere.

  1. Simple Barrel Kiln

    • The simple barrel kiln is the most commonly used incinerator. In small communities in developing countries, trash is collected and put into a barrel-shaped furnace and set on fire. The combustible portion of the trash burns, and the rest melts. The ash and solid waste are collected from the furnace and dumped at a deserted area or landfill. Segregation of combustible and noncombustible materials is not usually done, and toxic gases and hard metal contaminants are allowed to escape into the atmosphere.

    Fixed and Moving Grate Incinerators

    • Fixed and moving grate incinerators are used by municipalities and hospitals to burn trash. Super-heated air fired with oil or natural gas is forced into a huge hearth containing the trash. In a fixed grate incinerator, the trash is piled on to a metal grate over a large pit to collect the ash and heated air supplied from the ash pit to allow the trash to burn. The moving grate incinerator uses conveyor belts. Heated air or fire is injected into the hearth through nozzles just above the grate and the trash moved along the grate to burn it. A moving grate incinerator is more efficient than a fixed grate because of the volume of trash it can handle and the ease of loading the trash and removing the ash and clinkers.

    Rotary Kiln Incinerator

    • Rotary kiln incinerators are used to dispose of liquid and solid hazardous industrial waste. The incinerator consists of two chambers to process the waste. The first one is a rotating chamber or rotary kiln, a steel barrel lined with insulators that rotates the trash during combustion to help even burning. The after-burn contaminant gases and particulate matter are passed on to the second chamber for a second cycle of incineration.

Public Health - Related Articles