United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Air and Energy Engineering
Research Laboratory
Research Triangle Park NC 27711
Research and Development
EPA/600/S8-86/039 Mar. 1987
&EPA Project Summary
Mobile Laboratory for On-Site
Monitoring of Hazardous Waste
Incinerators
Sharon L Nolen, Merrill D. Jackson, and D. Bruce Harris
The Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) has increasingly viewed incinera-
tion as an effective means of destroying
hazardous waste. Incinerators are per-
mitted, via a detailed trial bum under
the Resource Conservation and Re-
covery Act, to burn hazardous waste.
These incinerators are than operated
using CO and other process parameters
established during the trial burn to
determine compliance.
Because of the interest in monitoring
the performance of the incinerator on a
real-time basis and the need to char-
acterize the emissions from a variety of
incinerators, the EPA built a mobile
laboratory for real-time and near real-
time monitoring of a hazardous waste
incinerator's emissions and operating
parameters. The result, the Hazardous
Air Pollutants Mobile Laboratory
(HAPML), is equipped with monitors
for on-line analysis of inorganic and
organic stack gas emissions. Instru-
mentation includes a gas chromatograph
and mass spectrometer (GC/MS).
This report discusses the development
of the HAPML, results from the first
field test and other combustion sources,
and future plans.
This Project Summary was devel-
oped by EPA's Air and Energy Engi-
neering Research Laboratory. Research
Triangle Park. NC. 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
The EPA's view concerning the disposal
of hazardous waste has changed radically
during EPA's history. The Agency has
progressed from viewing land disposal as
virtually the only means of discarding
waste to the restrictions of land disposal
found in the Hazardous and Solid Waste
Amendments of 1984. As a result of this
change in perspective, hazardous waste
incineration has increasingly been per-
ceived as an effective means of destroying
certain types of hazardous waste.
The land-based incineration of haz-
ardous waste is regulated by the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976
(RCRA I) and its 1984 reauthorization
(RCRA II). Incinerators are permitted
under RCRA by completing a trial burn
using the types and levels of waste or an
acceptable substitute to be burned in the
unit and meeting certain requirements
during the trial. The destruction and re-
moval efficiency (ORE) of the principal
organic hazardous constituents (POHCs)
must be greater than 99.99%. Hydro-
chloric acid removal must be greater than
99% or the emission in weight less than
0.5 g/s (4 Ib/hr), and the maximum
particulate level must not exceed 0.183
g/dscm (0.08 gr/dscf) at 12% C02.
Operating parameters established and
the CO level observed during the trial
burn, while the RCRA requirements were
achieved, are used to determine compli-
ance for future operation of the incinera-
tor. The operating parameters include
types of waste to be burned, feed rate.
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and temperature. Although the CO level
has been used as a performance indicator
for incinerators, it has been found to
represent general trends in ORE without
reflecting minor changes.
Although DREs are used to indicate the
performance of an incinerator, they are
calculated only during the trial burn.
Obtaining the information to calculate
DREs is time consuming, costly, and, at
the present, time, not possible on a con-
tinuous basis. DREs also have a funda-
mental limitation: they do not take into
account the presence of products of in-
complete combustion (PICs). The ORE will
not truly reflect the destruction and
removal efficiency of a POHC is also
formed in the combustion process. Fur-
thermore, it is possible that a different
POHC can be formed in the combustion
process that is more dangerous than the
materials being incinerated.
Because of the interest in determining
the performance of an incinerator on a
real-time basis and the need to char-
acterize the emissions from a variety of
incinerators, EPA initiated a project to
build a mobile laboratory for continuous
monitoring of emissions and operating
parameters of hazardous waste incinera-
tors. The objective of this project was to
provide an integrated sampling and
anlytical package for evaluation and
development of continuous and semicon-
tinuous monitors for hazardous waste
incinerators. The result of the project is
the Hazardous Air Pollutants Mobile
Laboratory (HAPML), designed to be easily
transported for use by research projects
at a variety of incinerators.
The HAPML is based on extractive
sampling technology, and all analytical
components are housed in a 8 m long,
self-propelled van. The laboratory con-
tains continuous monitors for real-time
analysis of O2, CO, C02 NOX, SO2, and
HCI. It also contains analytical instru-
mentation for identification and quantifi-
cation of volatile organics.
The HAPML has been used to cha?
acterize a variety of combustion sources
including incinerators, boilers, wood
stoves, and coal combustion. The dati
from the first field test, a boiler co-firinj
hazardous waste, indicate that thi
HAPML can be transported to a remoti
site and produce quality CEM results
Additional work at the other combustioi
sources reflects the capabilities of thi
organic system.
There is, without question, a need fo
real-time measurement capabilities fo
hazardous waste incinerators. There i;
also a need for a continuous indicator o
incinerator performance. The HAPMI
provides a means of testing a number o
incinerators and can be used to char
acterize the volatile organics and per
manent gas emissions.
The EPA authors S. L. Nolen (also the EPA Project Officer, see below), M.
D. Jackson, and D. B. Harris are with Air and Energy Engineering Research
Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711.
The complete report, entitled "Mobile Laboratory for On-Site Monitoring of
Hazardous Waste InoMefators,"(Order No. PB87-140 885/AS; Cost: $11.95,
subject to change) wftl be available only from:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 221'61
Telephone: 703-487-4650
The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at:
Air and Energy Engineering Research Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Center for Environmental Research
Information
Cincinnati OH 45268
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