United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Industrial Environmental
Research Laboratory
Cincinnati OH 45268
Research and Development
EPA-600/S2-84-052 Apr. 1984
Project Summary
A Profile of Existing Hazardous
Waste Incineration Facilities and
Manufacturers in the United States
Edwin Keitz, Greg Vogel, Rich Holberger, and Leo Boberschmidt
A wide variety of technical data per-
taining to hazardous waste incinerators
has been obtained both from incinerator
manufacturers and facilities operating
hazardous waste incinerators. This
document discusses the procedures for
data gathering and verification and
presents tabulations of the data. It is
estimated that there are approximately
350 operational hazardous waste incin-
erators at 270 facilities in the United
States that are subject to regulation
under the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act.
This Project Summary was developed
by EPA's Industrial Environmental Re-
search Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, to
announce key findings of the research
project that is fully documented in a
separate report of the same title (see
Project Report ordering information at
back).
Introduction and Summary
Background
The control of hazardous waste (HW) con-
tinues to be of major concern to the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
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data management systems. As a result of
these studies, a recommendation was made
to IRB to concentrate development efforts
on modifying and expanding EPA's existing
Hazardous Waste Data Management Sys-
tem (HWDMS). This expanded portion of
the data base is called the Hazardous Waste
Control Technology Data Base (HWCTDB).
Current Effort
A major part of this effort centered on the
collection of various types of hazardous
waste incineration data in support of the IRB
objectives. Two of the types of data col-
lected were:
• Design features, operating charac-
teristics, and number in-service esti-
mates for hazardous waste incinerators
based on contact with manufacturers of
incinerators.
• Design information, operating condi-
tions, and detailed waste characteriza-
tion for operational hazardous waste
incinerators based on information pro-
vided by HW facility spokesmen.
The full report presents the results of both
of the data collection efforts. Section 2.0 of
the full report discusses data collected from
manufacturers of incinerators and related
equipment. The data were used to generate
a profile of the domestic hazardous waste
incinerator manufacturing industry. In the full
report, Section 3.0 discusses data collected
from facilities known or thought to be possi-
ble operators of one or more hazardous
waste incinerators, presents tabulations of
the data collected, and discusses the find-
ings. Both the manufacturers' data and the
operational data were collected in part for
entry into the HWCTDB.
Summary of Principal Findings
Incinerator manufacturers' information
was obtained from interviews and sales
literature provided by the 57 domestic com-
panies identified as HW incinerator manufac-
turers. Information on existing facilities was
obtained from 514 of 566 facilities listed in
HWDMS as HW incinerators on 30 Novem-
ber 1981, plus 23 facilities identified outside
the HWDMS data base. The summary find-
ings presented below are based on the in-
formation provided by these 57 manufac-
turers and 537 facilities.
Table 1 presents a comparison of the
number of HW incinerators as reported by
both manufacturers and representatives of
existing HW facilities. A total of 284 opera-
tional HW incinerators were verified at 219
facilities. At the end of this study a review
of the HWDMS and other sources produced
a list of 128 potential incineration facilities
which had not been contacted. These in-
cluded new additions to HWDMS, and
facilities which could not be contacted dur-
ing the study. If a projection of the facility
population figures is made to account for
these 128 potential facilities, the total opera-
tional HW incinerator population would be
approximately 350 units at 270 facilities. This
figure agrees with the 335 operational units
reported by manufacturers. In contrast, ex-
isting facilities reported 32 units under con-
struction, which is much higher than the
seven reported by manufacturers.
Table 2 presents a comparison of the types
of operational HW incinerators reported by
manufacturers and HW facilities. The manu-
facturers' data and the projected total ex-
isting populations agree for the liquid
injection and hearth type incinerators. How-
ever, the rotary kiln population reported by
manufacturers is more than double the
number reported by facilities.
Of the 264 operational incinerators whose
type was specified, 208 (79 percent) are
capable of burning liquids by injection.
Twenty-nine units (11 percent) are capable
of burning bulk wastes (solids or liquids). The
remaining units are mostly special purpose
types such as steel drum reconditioning
burners or military ammunition disposal \
equipment.
Additional findings based on analyses of
the existing facilities data include :
• Design capacities were reported for 180
incinerators burning liquids and 44 in-
cinerators burning solids. The median
design capacity of incinerators burning
liquids is 150 gallons per hour with most
units (86 percent) not exceeding 1000
gallons per hour. Incinerators burning
solids tend to have smaller capacities
with the median being approximately
650 pounds per hour (equivalent to 78
gallons of water).
• Of the 219 facilities reporting, 71 (32 per-
cent) reported operating continuously 24
hours per day, 7 days per week. The ma-
jority of all incinerators (62 percent)
reported intermittent operations either
on a fixed schedule or an "as needed"
basis. The remaining 13 units (6 percent)
were on standby or long-term shutdown
Since some respondents did not provide data on one
or more topics, the sample size varies from one topic
to another.
Table 1. Comparison of Number of HW Incinerators Reported by Manufacturers
and HW/ Facilities
Reported by HW/ Facilities
Contacted
Operational
Incinerators*
Units under
Construction
Total Reported
Actual Number
Reported
284
32
316
Projection for
Total Population
350
40
390
Reported by
Manufacturers
335
7
342
"Operational incinerators are defined as those currently burning hazardous waste or which are tempo-
rarily shut down for maintenance or other causes.
Table 2. Comparison of the Types of Operational HW Incinerators Reported by Manufacturers
and HW/ Facilities
Reported by HWI Facilities
Contacted
Liquid Injection
Hearths
Rotary Kiln
Fluidized Bed
Others
Type Not
Specified
Total Operational
Actual Number
Reported
16(f
5
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but still considered operational by the
facility.
• Combustion temperatures were re-
ported for 173 incinerators. Gaseous
residence times were reported for 104
incinerators. The median combustion
temperature for HW incineration is ap-
proximately 1800°F, and median
gaseous residence time is slightly under
2 seconds. Units operating at higher
temperatures also tend to have longer
residence times.
• Most of the wastes reported are liquids,
principally spent non-halogenated sol-
vents and aqueous solutions of cor-
rosives, reactives or ignitables. The most
frequently reported waste was the non-
listed ignitable waste with high heat
content fover 6000 Btu per pound). This
waste was reported for 69 incinerators.
The largest single cate'gory of waste by
weight was non-halogenated solvents,
accounting for 233,000 tons per year at
18 incinerators. This is approximately 23
percent by weight of all wastes re-
ported. However, approximately
600,000 tons per year (59 percent) of all
wastes reported were aqueous hazard-
ous wastes.
Air pollution control devices (APCDs)
were reported on 45 percent of the in-
cinerators. Some form of scrubber sys-
tem was used on 83 percent of the units
with APCDs. Larger incinerators are
more likely to have control devices than
smaller units.
Incinerators with high combustion tem-
peratures and long gaseous residence
times are more likely to have air pollu-
tion control devices than other units.
• Heat recovery units were reported on 22
percent of the incinerators. The use of
heat recovery tends to be related to the
continuity of incinerator operation.
• Although the data were not subjected
to formal statistical analysis, there ap-
pears to be a correlation between the
location of HW incinerator facilities and
chemical industry centers. For example,
of the 219 facilities identified, 52 (24 per-
cent) are located in Texas or Louisiana.
> Privately owned and operated (on-site)
facilities (including university facilities)
account for 80 percent of the total. The
remaining facilities are mostly commer-
cial facilities or military ammunition
disposal operations.
1 Most of the incinerators (104 out of 128
reporting) are less than 10 years old.
Sixty units (47 percent) are in the 6- to
10-year age range.
' Due to the structure of the data gather-
ing and verification procedures, it was
not possible to estimate the extent to
which hazardous waste may be incin-
erated in devices exempt from the
RCRA HW incinerator regulations, such
as boilers or process kilns.
The above capsule profile of HW iricinera-
tion in the United States tends to substan-
tiate many concepts which heretofore were
mostly assumptions. These include the loca-
tion, type, and capacities of HW incin-
erators. On the other hand, some previously
existing assumptions will require modifica-
tion. Among these are the number of fa-
cilities, the nature of wastes incinerated, and
the hours of operation.
Many respondents voiced the opinion that
the decision to operate an HW incinerator
was selected only when other choices such
as material recovery, recycling, energy
recovery or other disposal methods were not
cost-effective.
Edwin Keitz. Greg Vogel, Rich Holberger, and Leo Boberschmidt are with The
Mitre Corporation, McLean, VA 22102.
C. C. Lee is the EPA Project Officer (see below).
The complete report, entitled "A Profile of Existing Hazardous Waste Incineration
Facilities and Manufacturers in the United States," (Order No. PB 84-157 072;
Cost: $16.00, subject to change) will be available only from:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Telephone: 703-487-4650
The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at:
Industrial Environmental Research Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Cincinnati, OH 45268
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United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Center for Environmental Research
Information
Cincinnati OH 45268
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use $300
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