THERMAL INCINERATOR

An introduction to incineration
The pollution of air, water and soil has become a serious problem. Today, our society has reached a point where it will not longer tolerate industrial pollution. An important part of this pollution is caused by waste materials. The quantity of these wastes increases every year, due to both industrial expansion and the ever increasing population. It is clear that if we want to maintain the natural equilibrium, something has to be done to solve the pollution problem.

The composition of industrial refuse differs from case to case, but the most serious problems are undoubtedly caused by chemical and petrochemical waste. The industrial problems are manifold since each process creates its own peculiar wastes, and each of these wastes requires a separate solution. Unfortunately, chemical and petrochemical waste products have properties that make them in general unfit for landfill and composting, as this could create pollution of water and soil. Moreover, most polymers cannot be broken down by micro-organisms, therefore they cannot be disposed of in the conventional way.

At present, incineration seems to be the only solution for the disposal of polymers such as polyethylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride etc. Also for many liquid and gaseous chemical/petrochemical wastes, incineration is often the best solution, as far as pollution and economics are concerned.

Any process that uses combustion to convert waste to a less bulky, less toxic, less noxious material is called incineration. Sometimes, incineration is referred to as “thermal oxidation”, “thermal destruction” or simply “burning”.