06-10-2010, 09:18 AM
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INTRODUCTION
About one-third of municipal waste consists of electronic &biomedical wastes. Traditionally, incineration was used for the disposal. Plasma technology is the most promising technology. The paper describes e-waste & plasma e-waste treatment. By-products of the process and their applications has been discussed.
WHAT IS AN E-WASTE?
E-waste is the general catagory of outdated or eliminated electronic goods
Broken TV parts ,CPU & CRT monitors of computers, cell phones etc are examples
A computer contain notable amount of toxic materials
A desk top PC contains 57g of lead, 2.5g of barium,0.01g of arsenic 0.8g of antimony ,and other toxics
If incenerated , they produce volatalised heavy metals & causes public health hazards
Conventional waste utilisation methods certainly do not solve problems, because the harmful residues such as ash, dust, gases left behind cannot be filtered off even with the usage of innovative technologies. Municipal waste problem is undoubtedly waiting for proper solutions. Many meetings are held in the Ontario’s municipal offices, numerous articles recently appeared in press, all of them discussing this growing concern.
Protests from local communities, who live in the vicinity of landfills and incineration sites decorate columns of our newspapers, because their safety and well-being is constantly in danger.
The SOLUTION to this problem is:
Plasma technology is known for more than a half of century and was developed and used particularly in metallurgy for production of high-grade steel. Today, it is widely used for municipal waste utilisation. In Japan two converters are working already and transform 200 tons per day. Plasma technology is currently being developed in Italy, Spain and other European countries. In North America there are companies, which produce plasma converters that have mobile and stationary capabilities.
In Canada this technology only begins to claw and all initiatives in this direction are not seen with enthusiasm. Therefore, the goal of this article is to prompt Ontario’s government, the municipal authorities and people who are responsible for the utilization of municipal waste in Ontario and Canada to take the action.
What is plasma technology?
Very hot plasma is formed by ionized gas (i.e. Oxygen, under normal pressure) in the strong electrical arc with the power ranging from 2 to 20 Mega Watts. Temperature of such plasma is very high, ranging from 2 to 6 thousand degrees Celsius. In such high temperature all waste constituents, including metals, toxic materials, silicon, etc. are totally melted forming non–toxic dross. Plastic, biological and chemical compounds, toxic gases yield complete dissociation (required minimal dissociation temperature is in the range of 1500 degrees Celsius) into simpler gases mainly H2 and CO2. Simpler gases, mainly H2 can be used as ecological fuel to generate heat energy and electrical energy decreasing significantly (even to zero) cost of plasma formation and waste utilization. Regained metals from dissociation process can safely return to metallurgic industry, and slag can be used as an additive to road and construction materials.
