(best examples and good practices) on household organic waste ...

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It has been processed <strong>and</strong> brought to known specifications for combustion (e.g.
calorific value, ash content, particle size) even though it does not fulfill the
stringent criteria of fuels <strong>and</strong> remains legally a waste. RDF is mostly pre-treated
municipal solid waste. In rare cases, fluidized beds are also used for the
incineration of municipal solid waste. (Bontoux.,1999)
Other incinerators
Waste incineration can be used for specific kind of waste such as organics using
smaller facilities which produce the same result (energy production). These
kind of incinerators exist in the industrial sector <strong>and</strong> apply for the treatment of
food waste, plastics, etc. As a result, they usually benefit from optimized
operating conditions <strong>and</strong> treat much smaller tonnages of waste that the mass
burn facilities.
A popular design is the “starved air” or “two-stage” incinerator where wastes are
burned <strong>and</strong> partially paralyzed at the front end of a hearth with the resulting
char being fully burned out at the back end. These kind of facilities are mainly
used for hospital waste. (Bontoux.,1999)
Another kind of incinerator that looks like the rotary kiln <strong>and</strong> is often water
cooled, is popular for burning hazardous wastes because they can burn sludge
<strong>and</strong> liquids as well as solids. Catalytic combustors are special furnaces that rely
on a catalyst to burn wastes with low organic concentration. (Bontoux.,1999)
3.2.4. Environmental Aspects of Incineration
Dioxins <strong>and</strong> furans
Maybe the most important problem concerning the incineration process is the
dioxins <strong>and</strong> furans emitted (by waste incinerators <strong>and</strong> other combustion
installations. This is because these chemicals have been proven to cause cancer
to many mammals when they are absorbed in large quantities by the
organisms. (Bontoux.,1999)
20 years ago when technology was not in the st<strong>and</strong>ards it is today, in the EU the
main sources of dioxins <strong>and</strong> furans have been mainly steel furnaces <strong>and</strong> waste