Gas analyzers and monitoring systems for waste incineration sector - Waste and Recycling

Most industrial processes produce waste, some of which can be hazardous to public health and the environment if not managed properly. Despite the efforts to reduce and recycle hazardous waste from industrial processes, more than 400 million tons of hazardous waste is generated each year.

Hazardous waste is generated as a byproduct in the production processes of for example cosmetics, detergents, pharmaceuticals, household paints, phones, computers and gasoline. Discarded commercial products are also an example of potentially hazardous or unrecyclable waste. Waste incineration also produces harmful gases that need to be measured.  Download our free guide on emissions monitoring to learn more!

The three most typical types of waste to which incineration is applied are municipal solid waste, hazardous waste and medical waste. These types of wastes are either liquids, solids or waste in containers.

Waste-to-energy plants are waste management facilities that recover energy from waste, producing electricity and/or heat. These types of power plants are sometimes called trash-to-energy, energy-from-waste or resource recovery plants. Hazardous waste can be incinerated at specific WtE plants or at plants with permission for co-incineration of waste at biomass boilers or cement kilns.

Many kinds of hazardous waste are fed to incinerators, boilers, and industrial furnaces essentially as received. These wastes are often difficult to handle because of their consistency or hazardous nature, so minimal handling is preferred.

Where possible, however, pretreatment operations are desirable to facilitate homogenization of the waste and continuous feeding to the combustor. Common pretreatment operations by the type of waste are:

• Liquid wastes – blending and solids filtration
• Solid wastes – screening and size reduction (crushing or shredding)
• Wastes in containers – liquid-phase decanting and shredding

The delivery of heat from WtE plants can be conducted at much higher efficiencies than electricity only plants. Those that operate in combined heat and power (CHP) mode will therefore continue to be superior to landfill. Waste-to-energy plants typically employ one of three technologies: direct combustion, pyrolysis or gasification.

Direct combustion burns waste that cannot be recycled, producing high-pressure steam that is converted to electricity using a turbine and a generator. Pyrolysis is the thermal degradation of waste in the absence of air to produce a syngas (synthesis gas) which is then used to generate power. Gasification involves the partial oxidation of the waste, producing a syngas which is then used to generate power.

Even though waste incineration technology and emission control, in particular, have improved substantially over the past years, waste incineration produces harmful gases that need to be measured. Examples of gases that waste incineration can produce are:

• carbon dioxide CO2
• nitrogen oxides NOx
• sulphur dioxide SO2
• hydrochloric acid HCI

In addition to the gases mentioned above, heavy metals (e.g. mercury Hg) and fine particles can be released into the atmosphere during waste incineration.

The waste incineration plants are governed by strict emissions regulations. All waste burning plants, including small waste incineration plants, have to meet at least the stringent emissions limit, monitoring, waste reception and treatment standards brought in under the Waste Incineration Directive (2000/76/EC) which has been recast into the Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU).

Gasmet is able to specify, design, install and commission complete integrated continuous emissions monitoring systems to ensure regulatory compliance and to inform process control. Our CEMS enables operators to monitor multiple gases and other process parameters such as particulates and flow, simultaneously.

Our two different continuous monitoring systems are:

• The Continuous Emissions Monitoring System CEMS II e offers TÜV and MCERTS certified solution (QAL1) for a wide range of demanding emission monitoring applications. The CEMS II e utilizes Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy FTIR technology. Gasmet CEMS II e is generally used to simultaneously measure the following 16 gases: H2O, CO2, CO, N2O, NO, NO2, SO2, HCl, HF, NH3, CH4, C2H6, C3H8, C2H4, and CH2O.
• The Continuous Mercury Monitoring systems CMM AutoQAL and CMM have the lowest certified range in the world (0-5 µg/m3). CMM AutoQAL has an automatic and integrated QAL3 validation tool. Systems are perfect for monitoring mercury continuously from hot, wet and corrosive gas streams. The CMM system utilizes Cold Vapor Atomic Fluorescence (CVAF) technology.

We also have dioxin sampling system:

• The Dioxin Monitoring system GT90 Dioxin+ MCERTS certified device designed for long-term monitoring of dioxin emissions in conformity to the European standard EN1948-1 and EN15267. The system represents the cutting-edge technology for dioxin sampling and fulfils all the requirements of the dioxin measurement standard.