CONSIDERATIONS ON THE INCINERATION OF MUNICIPAL SOLID

WASTE

Nicoleta UNGUREANU1, Mihaela NIȚU2, Valentin VLĂDUŢ2, Mirela DINCĂ1, Bianca-

Ștefania ZĂBAVĂ1, Iulian VOICEA2, Ioan CABA2
1
Politehnica University of Bucharest, Faculty of Biotechnical Systems Engineering, Romania;
2
INMA Bucharest, Romania

ABSTRACT

As a result of growing concerns about groundwater contamination, decreasing availability of land

for waste disposal, respectively public health and aesthetic issues related to landfills, incineration
represents an alternative method for the treatment of municipal solid waste. The paper presents the
theoretical aspects related to waste incineration and its residues, namely gas emissions into the
atmosphere, fly ashes and bottom ashes. Also, there are presented some mass balances obtained at the
incineration of municipal solid waste and current possibilities for the recovery of bottom ashes.

1. INTRODUCTION

Wastes are a heterogeneous mixture of residues of all kinds, whose composition depends
on variables such as socio-economic conditions, cultural and climatic differences. Waste
composition varies over time due to additional recycling or economic growth in the collection
area, and these two factors can change significantly the amount of waste and their calorific
value [12].
According to Eurostat, in the EU member states, the amount of municipal waste
generated by a person in 2013 was 481 kg, of which 470 kg/person were treated by various
methods: 31% landfilled, 28% recycled, 26% incinerated and 15% composted [8].
In most countries in the developing world, the frequent practice of waste management is
still the landfilling, but in industrialized countries in Europe, and also in Japan, USA and
Canada, the proportion of waste burnt in incinerators is very high (up to 100%) [10]. Due to
increasing concerns on groundwater contamination, decreasing availability of land in many
areas, and also the aesthetics and public health aspects regarding landfills, incineration is
regarded as a valid method of disposal for municipal waste and for industrial applications [5].
Incineration (combustion) is a process of thermal decomposition by exothermic oxidation
at high temperatures (850-1100°C), whereby the waste is converted into a non-hazardous
material, with low volume, at the same time generating thermal energy that can be recovered
in the form of heat (hot water / steam), electricity or a combination of those.
Some attractive features of incineration are given by the facts that it reduces the initial
volume of combustible waste by 80-95%, and for the disposal of a tone of burned waste is
needed an area of only 0.1 m2. Incineration is also characterized by stabilization, pathogen
elimination, and recycling. The time of reaction is short, so the waste can be treated rapidly.
Modern incinerators offer a proven way to route waste away from landfills and at the
same time facilitate the recovery of energy contained in the waste [2]. Residual waste contains
a substantial amount of energy. In terms of the possibility to use their heat of combustion,
wastes are classified as [20]: combustible (paper, plastic, wood, leather, rubber, foods,
gardening residues, textile fabrics) and non-combustible (glass, ceramic, stone, metal).

1Splaiul Independenţei 313, sector 6, Bucharest, 0724086492, nicoletaung@yahoo.com

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 The calorific value of mixed waste ranges from 7.500 to 11.000 kJ/kg. Mainly in the last
years, the calorific value of municipal waste increased due to the efforts to recycle the glass,
metals and kitchen waste. Figure 1 presents the percentage composition of MSW collected in
the member states of the European Union in 2012.

Figure 1: The composition of municipal solid waste in the EU, in 2012 [21]

Incineration with energy recovery is considered a process of recovery and incineration

without energy recovery is a disposal process [20]. According to Eurostat, in 2010, in the 27
Member States of the European Union, 87.7 million tons of waste (of which, approximately
1.5 million tons in Romania) were incinerated with energy recovery, and 41.44 million tons of
waste (of which, 74.520 tons in Romania) were incinerated without energy recovery [18].

2. METHODOLOGY

Figure 2 presents the simplified model of a solid waste incinerator. The most important
part of the incineration plant is the furnace, whose role is to ensure the continued, controlled
and complete incineration of waste.

Figure 2: Simplified model of a waste incineration plant [15]

Therefore, a basic requirement is to introduce an air under the incineration grate and to
ensure its proper control. Combustion temperature should be kept at 850-1100°C and furnaces

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must be massive and high to ensure good turbulence of the air (this is a prerequisite for proper
combustion). In order to start the ignition, is necessary the use of a support flame.
In such incinerator, the combustion processes are carried out with the following
characteristic steps [14]:
a) drying: under the action of heat radiated in the furnace, the air introduced, in the
majority of cases pre-heated, and the recirculated hot combustion gases, a large part of the
moisture of waste is converted to steam which is then removed in mixture with flue gas;
b) conversion: by uniform application of heat, relatively large amount of various volatile
substances and semicoke gases are eliminated from the waste. The characteristic of these
gases is that they ignite at relatively low temperatures (250ºC). Waste incineration will begin
immediately after ignition of evolved gases;
c) combustion: by enabling the proper conditions, waste will burn continuously without
the addition of auxiliary fuel. The burning rate of the emitted gas depends on the thermal
conductivity, the loading capacity of the combustion grate, the amount of air introduced into
the furnace. The burning rate can be increased by reducing the amount of waste contained in
the grate and by preheating the air introduced into the incinerator;
d) post-combustion is the last stage of the incineration, when the particulate matter fallen
from the combustion grate continues burning on an additional grate (post-combustion grate)
mounted in the extension of the main grate, or are are placed in a vertical well mounted at the
lower end of the combustion grate and through the layer of waste is injected from the bottom
up a stream of air, optionally with the addition of steam. In some cases it can be used the
solution in which the slag (the matter subjected to the post-combustion) is introduced into a
post-combustion rotating drum with very low rotation speed (4-8 revs/h).
Figure 3 shows the input and output parameters specific to waste incineration: yellow
represents the residual materials, blue indicates the negative outputs (the environmental
costs), and green represents the positive outputs of incineration (the environmental benefits).

Figure 3: Input and output parameters specific to waste incineration [6]

Incineration of municipal waste involves the generation of greenhouse gases in the

atmosphere: carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia
(NH3), carbon monoxide (CO), volatile organic compounds (COV), and persistent organic
pollutants (e.g. furans and dioxins) and certain heavy metals (Pb, Cu, Cd, Cr, Ni, Hg) [7].
Dioxins are highly toxic chemicals that may occur in the incineration of household waste
containing plastic or wood treated with chlorine chemicals. Furans are combinations of

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organic liquid chemicals resulting from the distillation of pine resins and they are used as an
important intermediate in the synthesis of plastics and in the pharmaceutical industry.
In the incineration, the dioxins / furans are formed by the so-called "de novo" synthesis,
from various non-extractable carbon structures, or by forming the precursor / reactions of the
structures derived from incomplete aromatic oxidation or cyclization of hydrocarbs fragments.
Generally, the formation of these toxic substances takes place in the presence of a surface or
structure of carbon (e.g., the fly ash), organic or inorganic ions of chlorine, copper or iron (as
a catalyst), in an oxidizing atmosphere and, ideally, at temperatures of 250 - 450 °C [3].
Usually, the normal operation of waste incineration plants does not generate methane
(CH4). The methane only occurs in exceptional cases and in small quantities (from the
fermentation of waste remaining in the waste bunker) so that in quantitative terms the CH4
generated by incineration is not considered dangerous for the climate.
Carbon dioxide is the chief climate-relevant emission of waste incineration and is higher
by 102 than other emissions. The incineration of 1 Mg of municipal solid waste is associated
with the release of about 0.7 to 1.2 Mg of carbon dioxide [10].
The solid residues of waste incineration are fly ash, bottom ash and air-pollution control
residues. Fly ash ranges from 1.6 to 8.7% of the incinerated waste, depending on the waste
input and combustion technology. Bottom ash is the residual material in the combustion
chamber and it contains the non-combustible constituents of the waste feed (stones, bricks,
glass, ceramic, plastic and wood) and metals that can be recovered and recycled. The amount
of bottom ash is influenced by the level of waste pretreatment.
In the European Union, the impact of waste incineration on the environment (air, water,
soil) is assessed by the Directive on the limitation of air emissions of pollutants from large
incineration plants (Directive 2001/80/EC) and the impact of energy generation from waste
treatment processes is mitigated by the Waste Incineration Directive (Directive 2000/76/EC).
In recent years, owners of waste incinerators were forced to improve their systems to
reduce emissions of particulate and gaseous pollutants from flue gases released into the
atmosphere. Equipment such as electrostatic precipitator, fabric filter, wet scrubber or dry
/semi-dry absorption systems as well as catalytic or non-catalytic reduction in various
combinations guarantee emissions that remain safely below the legal requirements.

3. RESULTS

The mass balance of a waste incineration plant has shown that by the incineration of 1
ton of waste, which requires the injection of 4000-4500 m3 air, were obtained: 220 kg bottom
ash, 30 kg fly ash and 30 kg metals (which is a reduction by 280 kg of the initial mass of
waste) [4].

Figure 4: Mass balance at the incineration of a ton of municipal solid waste [16]

The volume of flue gas varies between 4600–6000 Nm3/ton of waste, and the recovered

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energy is 400–700 kWh as electricity, respectively 1205 kWh as heat. At the exit from the
stack, the flue gases contain 11–19 g dust, 40–50 g SO2, 800–900 g NOx, 30–40 g HCl and 5–
40 mg Hg [17]. The amount of solid residues (slag and ash), based on the amount of waste
represents 10 - 15% by volume and 20-50% of the mass of waste. The residual bottom ash
amounts for about 80% of the solid residues generated after incineration (bottom ash, fly ash,
boiler ash, etc.).
Similar amounts are obtained at the incineration of a ton of waste from a grate
incineration plant for municipal solid waste, consisting in grate firing, multistage flue gas
cleaning, liquid and solid residue treatment. In this case, solid residues consist of 220 kg slag,
25 kg metals, 20 kg fly ash, 5 kg gypsum and 1 kg filter cake. The solid residues from
residual waste incineration only make up 25 - 30% of the untreated residual waste volume.
Due to the high density of these residues, the landfill volume required is only 10% of the
original volume [13].

1 ton of waste

Thermal municipal waste treatment

Grate firing, multistage flue gas cleaning, liquid and solid residue treatment

Slag Metals Fly ash Gypsum Filter cake

220 kg 25 kg 20 kg 5 kg 1 kg
Figure 5: Mass balance for solid residues from a grate incineration plant [13]

Another example for the specific mass flows of a fluidized bed combustion plant with the
annual throughput of 80.000 tons, shows that by incinerating 1 ton of waste (910 kg residual
materials and 90 kg sewage sludge), are obtained 93 kg bed ash, 137 kg boiler ash, 25 kg filter
particulates, 0.4 kg neutralization sludge and 0.1 kg gypsum, which is 255 kg of solid residues
[13].
There are various possibilities to recover some of the residues from waste incineration. A
significant amount of the solid residues can be recovered for recycling (e.g. metals or
gypsum).
Bottom ash contains CaO, SiO2, Fe2O3 and Al2O3. Metal recovery from bottom ash
generally has the highest priority due to prices and environmental considerations. The mineral
fraction in the bottom ash is used in the production of cement and concrete, road pavement,
glass, ceramics, adsorbents and zeolite. After proper treatment for the removal of heavy
metals, the ash can be used in agriculture, because its content of phosphorus and potassium
may partly replace the commercial fertilizers, and the lime in fly ash can reduce soil acidity
[11]. In some European countries (e.g. Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands) the use of
mineral fraction is very high (up to 98%). Other countries do not gain the full benefits of
bottom ash, which is instead landfilled [1].
By concentrating the inorganic substances in certain residue streams (e.g. particulate
matter or filter cake with an increased heavy metal content), they can be prepared for
mechanical treatment with the aim of metal recovery, or at least controlled landfill disposal
[13].
However, given the evidence of heavy metal contamination of the bottom ash and the
toxicity of fly ash, their capitalization poses serious concerns about environmental
contamination and threats to human health [4].

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 4. CONCLUSIONS

The incineration of municipal solid waste plays an important role in all waste
management systems, mostly because it is an advantageous method of waste treatment in the
context of constant production growth and rapid world-wide urban expansion.
Incineration reduces substantially the mass and volume of the solid waste, and this
implies a lower need for landfilling. The heat produced during incineration is further used for
steam generation.
Special attention should be paid to the effectiveness of the systems for flue gas treatment,
because these gases contain furans and dioxins.
Bottom ashes are solid residues that can be capitalized mainly as construction materials,
but they can contain high concentrations of hazardous substances that would be a serious
threat for human health and environment, if they are not properly managed.

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