[greenyes] Dioxin reduction for incinerators

[Amy Perlmutter <amyperl@no.address>]

TITLE Electron Beam Zaps Dioxins in Flue Gases
SOURCE Chemical & Engineering News, June 16, 2003, vol. 81, no. 24,
pp. 25
ABSTRACT Passing flue gases from municipal waste incinerators through
an electron beam efficiently removes polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins
(PCDDs and polychlorinated dibenzo-furans (PCDFs), Japanese scientists
report in Environmental Science and Technology. Municipal incinerators that
burn chlorine-containing materials are a major source of emissions of the
toxic compounds. The Japanese government has tightened emission limits,
and new technologies for destroying the compounds are urgently needed,
according to Koichi Hirota and coworkers at the Japan Atomic Energy
Research Institute. In their study, the researchers diverted flue gases from
an actual municipal incinerator into an electron accelerator assembly and
analyzed the gases' composition before and after treatment. More than 90%
of the PCDDs and PCDFs were decomposed, the researchers report.
Their economic analysis indicates electron-beam systems would cost only
about half as much to install and operate as bag-filter systems.