Waste: Usually a byproduct of hydrocarbon processing or chemical manufacture. If a liquid, it may be mostly water or can range up to waste solvents with fuel qualities. If a vapor, it can range from lightly contaminated air to near fuel gas. Some vapors are an inert such as nitrogen or CO2 mixed with oxygen and/or hydrocarbons. Vapor waste compositions often vary according to process plant operation. Both liquid and vapor wastes can contain acid components (Cl, F, S) and "ash" such as Na, Fe, etc.
Incinerator: Refractory lined chamber with a fuel burner, air supply, quench medium (for high BTU wastes), waste injector(s) and optional heat recovery and flue gas scrubbing. An instrumented safety and control system is used to assure proper addition of fuel, air, wastes and quench plus operation of the optional hardware.
Chemistry: Waste is heated above its ignition temperature in the presence of fuel and air to provide for complete combustion. Time is allowed for the combustion reactions to proceed far enough to satisfy legal emission requirements.
Safety: Avoiding dangerous conditions which may lead to injury to personnel or damage to equipment.
Performance: Ultimately each incinerator system has to meet the requirements of the air permit under which it operates. Specified levels of destruction for each waste component must be achieved. Specified limits on NOx, CO, acid gases, particulates, etc. must not be exceeded. Failures in this area are mostly caused by mis-specified waste streams or errors in sizing the equipment - fixes may require major and costly modifications.
Scrubber: Any device intended to remove particulates, acidic gases or odorous compounds from a gas stream. Usually scrubbers absorb the target material into a liquid stream for later separation or treatment. Occasionally a dry scrubber is used, where adsorbent particles are used to remove components (usually acidic gases) from a fouled gas stream.
Boiler: A heat recovery device where hot combustion products transfer heat to water, forming steam for use elsewhere. Boilers may include Economizers and Superheaters for more complete heat recovery. Boilers may be "firetube" where the hot gas passes through tubes (water outside) or "watertube" where the evaporating water is contained within tubes and the hot gases flow outside.
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