Chemical and pharmaceutical waste disposal with thermal plasma pyrolysis-melting
Authors
Abstract
Thermal plasma treatment is considered as a suitable alternative for the treatment of highly-hazardous wastes such as industrial, radioactive and medical waste. Therefore, a Plasma-Gasification-Melting (PGM) system for treatment of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Wastes (CPW) with a capacity of 1 ton/day is developed using a melting and gasification furnace equipped with two non-transferred thermal plasma torches. In this article, the whole method of chemical and pharmaceutical waste disposal is presented along with exhaust gas analysis, and slag and energy balance approach for improving the relevant technology process. It is successfully demonstrated that the thermal plasma process converts chemical and pharmaceutical wastes into harmless slag. Also, the associated emission level of air pollutants is shown to be very low. The synthetic gas produced can be used as a source of energy. (11.7 Nm3 / hr for CO and 16.4 Nm3 / hr for H2). The total power consumption of the system is 120 k W including 90 kW for thermal plasma torch and 30 kW for utilities with natural gas flow rate of 1.3 Nm3/hr.
