You are here:
BENCH-SCALE STUDIES ON THE SIMULTANEOUS FORMATION OF PCBS AND PCDDS/FS FROM COMBUSTION SYSTEMS
Citation:
Lemieux*, P M., C Lee*, J V. Ryan*, AND C. C. Lutes. BENCH-SCALE STUDIES ON THE SIMULTANEOUS FORMATION OF PCBS AND PCDDS/FS FROM COMBUSTION SYSTEMS. Presented at Int.Conference on Incineration and Thermal Treatment Technologies, Portland, OR, May 8-12, 2000.
Description:
The paper reports on a bench-scale experimental study to characterize a newly built reactor system that was built to: produce levels and distributions of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and polychlorinated dibenzofuran (PCDD/F) production similar to those achieved by previous researchers; verify similar responses to changes in independent variables; examine the hypothesis that polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) formation rates exhibit trends similar to PCDD/F formation rates as reactor variables are changed; and begin to explore the dependence of PCB formation on temperature and precursor type. The reactor system has been build, and initial reactor characterization studies have been performed. Initial experiments yielded results that support the hypothesis of a similar formation mechanism of PCBs and PCDDs/Fs in combustors. Initial experiments uncovered potential deficiencies with the reactor system and the experimental procedures and have suggested corrective action to improve the experimental system. (NOTE: The presence of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the environment has wide-ranging potential ecological and health impacts on animals and humans. A significant amount of experimental and theoretical work has been performed examining the formation and control of PCDDs/Fs, which account for only part of the EDCs being emitted from combustors).