Advancing startup control procedures for enhanced reduction of persistent organic pollutant emissions from municipal...

Startup of waste-to-energy incinerators can generate disproportionately high persistent organic pollutant (POP) emissions, yet this high-emission period is often insufficiently regulated and operationally optimized. This study developed and validated improved startup procedures in a full-scale incinerator co-treating industrial and municipal waste at a 60:40 mass ratio. The procedures were designed based on a two-year survey of 21 waste-to-energy incinerators in Taiwan and targeted key operational weaknesses associated with startup emissions. Three startup trials were conducted: R1 with limited controls, R2 with comprehensive controls, and R3 as a confirmation trial. The measures included furnace-bed and burner-nozzle cleaning, holding refractory dryout at 180 °C, rapidly traversing the 200-400 °C formation window, eliminating the flue-gas bypass, early activated-carbon injection, stable waste feeding, and gradual auxiliary-fuel reduction. Compared with R1, R2 and R3 reduced total chlorinated POP emissions by > 92% and brominated POP emissions by > 88%. The maximum PCDD/F concentration in the optimized R3 startup was only 0.425 ng WHO-TEQ Nm⁻³, substantially lower than values commonly reported during incinerator startup in previous studies. These findings demonstrate that low-cost, operationally feasible startup optimization can simultaneously suppress adsorptive memory-effect emissions and de novo reformation, enabling effective control of both chlorinated and brominated POPs under real incinerator operating conditions.