Using Plasma Pyrolysis Vitrification (PPV) to Enhance Incineration Waste Ash Reduction in Ireland

Ireland has been called the Silicon Valley of Europe. Like the Silicon Valley in the U.S. it has a large amount of waste created by the Microchip Industry. Ireland is also an agricultural country. A large amount of bio-waste has been stockpiled in Ireland. This is the result of recent outbreaks/epidemics of animal diseases in the EU. The current growth industry of Ireland is the chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Nine of the top ten pharmaceutical companies are manufacturing in Ireland. Wastes from these industries are often toxic and hazardous. They can contain large amounts of combustible organic compounds depending on their source. Since Ireland is an island it has special problems disposing of waste. Waste comes in as products as packaging and it doesn’t go out. The emerging solution is Incineration. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) can contain many forms of metal and chemistry under normal conditions. When a large amount of the primary industry of a region is chemistry based and agricultural based there is the probability of more than usual amount of toxic residue in the refuse. The ash from incineration contains items such as dioxins & heavy metals that are environmental toxins. Using a Plasma Pyrolysis Vitrification (PPV) process the volume of the resultant ash from incineration can be further reduced by as much as 30 to 1. A PPV process has an added advantage of giving an incineration facility the capability of rendering ash safe for reuse as construction material and as a side benefit reclaiming many valuable elemental components of the ash. The PPV plant can be used to destroy waste directly and economically as long as the gate fees are high. One byproduct of incinerator ash smelting/destruction using a PPV process is CO gas, a combustible fuel resource for power generation. Precious metals may also be reclaimed as an alloy material by-product.