Hazardous Waste Incineration and Waste to Energy

’Destroy a waste properly and it will be gone forever. However, if we bury it, it may come back to haunt us at a later time’ (Brunner, C. R. (1987) "Incineration - Today’s Hot Option for Waste Disposal", Chemical Engineering, October, pp 96-106).

Acoustic Pyrometry is proven to provide accurate temperatures in roughest, most abrasive conditions. Sound waves, and therefore our temperature measurements, are not affected by any material in your process.

There have been a number of acoustic pyrometers applied to WTE boilers. Uses have ranged from single path measurements for Minimum Temperature Compliance reasons, to full mapping or zonal systems for use with ammonia injection. For more information on injection systems see sorbent injection.

A major requirement to properly incinerate waste is to achieve a material temperature of at least 1400^o F and a residence time at that temperature of 0.5 seconds. In some cases such as the destruction of materials like chlorinated organics, a higher temperature (1800^o F) is required. Even the temperatures up to 3000^o F reached in the thermal reactors at some plants are easily measured by our systems.

By using our MMP Mapping System, spatial mapping can insure all the material is being properly incinerated, as well as provide a year’s history. See TMS-2000 for samples of our software. For a report on the industry see Applications of Acoustic Gas Temperature Measuring Systems in Waste to Energy Plants (PDF download, 25 pages, 428 Kbytes, opens in a new window).

Sound waves can be used to measure the temperature of a gas, including air, using our Boilerwatch^® MMP Systems. Boilerwatch^® MMP Systems can also be used for multiple paths, contour maps, and temperature distribution mapping. The MMP comes with the TMS-2000 software mentioned above.

For gas temperature measurement the distance between the acoustic transmitter and receiver is fixed and easily measured, and the flight time is measured by the acoustic pyrometer. From this information, the average gas temperature across the path is computed. For the complete theory, see The Technology.

The acoustic pyrometer provides accurate, repeatable, real time, non-contact temperature measuring, and comes with the features below:

SEI Acoustic Pyrometer Features

• Eliminate HVT or thermocouple replacement and maintenance time.
• Non-Intrusive design: Stainless Steel Waveguides are outside the hood, eliminating wear.
• Suitable for harsh, abrasive environments and all fuels.
• Unaffected by dust.
• Unaffected by air cannons.
• The system’s lower range of 35^o F allows it to be used for cold or warm start-ups.
• Upper temperature range of 3500^o F, or nearly 2000^o C.
• Suitable for Consistently High Gas Temperatures and Startup.
• Linear and Accurate.
• Periodic calibration is not required.
• Compared to replacing Thermocouples during outages, saves time when most needed.
• Fault Tolerant Processor Control Unit (PCU).
• The 4-20 mA temperature output is of the path, average, and difference, and easily connects to the Plant’s computer system.
• RS-232 and RS-422 for local monitoring and statistics.
• Telephone modem for remote monitoring.
• An EEPROM stores all program settings.
• Automatic recovery after power loss.
• Remote enable/disable input
• All Software operates on Windows 95/98/2000/XP or NT operating systems, and is included with each system.