Incineration

Within waste terms Incineration is a form of waste treatment which involves the combustion of waste materials.

Context and Definition

Legislation			Types	Temp. Range	Category		Kiln/Furnace/Reactor
Incineration	With Energy Recovery		Combustion	800 - 1450	Thermal Treatment		Grate
							Fluidised Bed
			Gasification	500 - 1600	Alternative Thermal Treatment (ATT)		Reciprocating & Rotary
	Without Energy Recovery						Plasma
			Pyrolysis	250 - 700	Alternative Thermal Treatment (ATT)		Heated Tube
							Surface contact

Typically, Incineration plants are generally focused on Municipal Solid Waste with combustion temperatures in excess of 850°C. A comprehensive list of plants and plant backgrounds are listed in the Residual Waste EFW page and associated pages of WikiWaste.

High Temperature Incineration (HTI) plants are generally focused on Hazardous Waste disposal with combustion temperatures around 1100°C.

In both cases, the process converts the waste into carbon dioxide and any non-combustible materials (e.g. metals, glass) remain as a solid, known as Incinerator Bottom Ash (which contains a small amount of residual carbon). The by-products of the flue gas/emissions cleaning process are known as Fly Ash.

In legal terms, a ‘waste incineration plant’ means any stationary or mobile technical unit and equipment dedicated to the thermal treatment of waste, with or without recovery of the combustion heat generated. Therefore, the activity is termed Incineration, whether the thermal treatment of the waste is via one of the following thermal processes:

• Conventional Combustion,
• Pyrolysis
• Gasification or

and if the gases resulting from the treatment are subsequently incinerated. As an example, a Pyrolysis facility that burnt the produced Syngas to generate electricity would be Incineration, whereas a Pyrolysis facility that processed Syngas for vehicle fuel would not.

Emissions

The standards for emissions limits, monitoring, waste reception and treatment standards that are acceptable for waste incineration plants were set in the Waste Incineration Directive (2000/76/EC) and updated in the Industrial Emissions Directive (2010/75/EU). The Industrial Emissions Directive provides the framework for regulating across the EU and requires such installations to hold a Permit based on the use of Best Available Technique (BAT).

On the 3rd December 2019 new EU standards were published for waste incineration for new emissions, monitoring and efficiency standards. The new specifications stem from a review of Best Available Technique (BAT) Reference Document (BREF) for Waste Incineration.