Background Environmental regulations on medical waste incineration have become more stringent at the same time as landfill capacities are diminishing in many parts of the country. These two circumstances are leading many healthcare facilities to reevaluate their medical waste generation and disposal practices. Although the typical healthcare waste stream can include infectious, radioactive, and...

Laboratory scale biological trickling filters and three-phase airlift bioreactors have been studied for the elimination of methylene chloride (or dichloromethane) vapors from waste air, and the results used herein for the design of small industrial-scale reactors. The conditions chosen for scale-up were an air flow rate of 100 m3 h-1, a methylene chloride inlet concentration of 2 g m-3, and a t...

By-product and waste streams from the food industry could be regarded as ideal renewable feedstocks for the production of value-added products. The utilisation of food processing wastes could lead to the development of a sustainable chemical industry and a food industry that will cause less environmental concerns. This will be achieved via simultaneous substitution of fossil raw materials and r...

Conventional plastic products are made of crude oil components through polymerization. Aim of the project ANIMPOL is to convert lipids into polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) which constitute a group of biobased and biodegradable polyesters. Replacing fossil based plastics with biobased alternatives can help reducing dependence on crude oil and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. As substrate material ...

Industrial pollution prevention has been incorporated into several aspects of the chemical engineering curriculum at The University of Tennessee. One is an industrial internship program. This technology selection example focuses on a case from a pilot internship project sponsored by a pesticide manufacturer. This project involved synthesis and evaluation of waste management strategies for reduc...

Four types of biomass (chicken waste, wood pellets, coffee residue, and tobacco stalks) were cofired at 30 wt % with a U.S. sub-bituminous coal (Powder River Basin Coal) in a laboratory-scale fluidized bed combustor. A cyclone, followed by a quartz filter, was used for fly ash removal during tests. The temperatures of the cyclone and filter were controlled at 250 and 150 degrees C, respectively...

The separation (or removal) of organic residues from aqueous waste streams released from industries is important and essential from the points of view of pollution control and recovery of useful materials. The disposal of waste waters containing most widely-used industrial organic acids such as acetic acid, formic acid and propionic acid has been recognized as a significant expense to the indus...

This report discusses various types of environmental waste products, current status of waste destruction, and the application of plasma technology for waste treatment. Plasma processes are divided into three types: open bath systems, shaft furnaces, and gas-cracking systems. These three types of plasma systems have the capability of treating a large number of different types of wastes and reduc...

In a joint U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA) and DuPont waste minimization project, fifteen waste streams were selected for assessment. The intent was to develop assessments diverse in terms of process type, mode of operation, waste type, disposal needed, and relative success in identifying good waste reduction options. The fifteen case study reports describe the wastes and the proces...