Laboratory-scale study of the suppression of PCDD/F emission during coal and MSW co-incineration

The experimental test of co-incinerating Chinese raw municipal solid waste (MSW) and coal in a laboratory-scale tubular reactor was first reported in present study, and the emission of normal gas components and the effects of the S/C1 molar ratio or coal mixing percentages on polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDDs/Fs) emission were investigated and discussed. The results indicated that OCDD was the only PCDD homologues since others like TCDD-HpCDD was hardly detected, while as the categories of PCDF homologues were comparatively much more general. The amount of PCDD was much larger than that of PCDF in all operating conditions. Since sigma PCDF/sigma PCDD<<1, the dominant role of the precursor formation was proven in our experimental conductions. With increasing the coal addition to MSW (from 0 to 16%), PCDD and PCDF were reduced considerably. Coal and MSW may suppress the PCDD/F emissions efficiently (over 95%) during the MSW incineration process. The PCDD/F suppression results of the present study could be helpful guidance to the industrial application of Chinese MSW and auxiliary coal co-incineration processes. The PCDD/F stack emission data of two industrial incinerators using co-incineration technology in China seem to have a great positive reduction of PCDDs/Fs.