The relationship between chlorine and dioxin emissions from waste combustors

Conference · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:495348

Rigo, H G ^[1]; Chandler, A J ^[2]; Lanier, W S ^[3]

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1. Rigo and Rigo Associates, Inc., Berea, OH (United States)
2. A.J. Chandler and Associates Ltd., Willowdale, Ontario (Canada)
3. Energy and Environmental Research Corp., Durham, NC (United States)

PCDD/F cannot be made without chlorine. Chemical thermodynamics indicate that the amount of PCDD/F formed is proportional, through a very complex and poorly understood set of nonlinear relationships, to the amount of chlorine present. These observations raise a series of questions about the influence that changes in chlorine feed might have on emissions from full scale waste combustion facilities. Is such a change, discernible in some laboratory experiments, a factor in full scale system operation? To address this question, an extensive database including different waste combustion source types was assembled. This database was analyzed to address the question using a series of increasingly sophisticated statistical techniques. For the vast majority of the data sets, the effect of feed chlorine content on PCDD/F emissions cannot be differentiated from normal variability. A small number of data sets shows conflicting trends with the quantity increasing in some cases and decreasing in others. The quantity of chlorine had no effect on the PCDD/F isomer distribution. Mandatory chlorine reduction programs are, therefore, unlikely to produce any measurable reduction in the quality or quantity of PCDD/F emissions.

• OSTI ID: 495348
• Report Number(s): CONF-9504119--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR POLLUTION
CHEMICAL REACTION YIELD
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
DATA BASE MANAGEMENT
DIOXIN
EMISSION
INCINERATORS