DYNAMIC MODELING OF WASTE INCINERATION PLANTS WITH ROTARY KILNS - COMPARISONS BETWEEN EXPERIMENTAL AND SIMULATION DATA

Incineration is not a new technology and has been used to destroy orga nic hazardous waste for many years. Nevertheless, variability in waste composition and the severity of the incineration operating conditions may result in many practical operating problems, high maintenance req uirements and equipment unreliability. Moreover, a large number of con straints must be satisfied. These constraints are imposed by permit, b y design and by operating practice. The goal of this work is to presen t a dynamic model which is able to follow large variations in process conditions and to be of practical value from a control point of view. This paper deals in particular with the development of a dynamic model which describes the behavior of a rotary kiln (primary combustion cha mber with heterogeneous combustion) as well as the corresponding after burner system (secondary combustion chamber with homogeneous combustio n) followed by a heat recovery system which completes the hot section of a typical incineration plant. Special attention was devoted to a st art-up procedure which was used as a specific application, to check th e robustness and reliability of the model itself effectively. In addit ion, a number of comparisons with experimental data available from com mercial units are reported to complete the model validation under ordi nary feeding conditions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.