Dioxins and furanes in the cremation process and their catalytic reduction

Dioxins and furanes are introduced into the combustion process by the body of the deceased person, but are thermally destroyed if the temperatures in the furnace are sufficiently high. The greatest percentage of the noxious m atter load in the waste gas is formed by non-chlorinated organic materials in the presence of a chlorine source in the temperature range of between 45 0 and 250 degrees C, where the non-chlorinated organic materials originate from incomplete combustion so that particular importance can be attributed to effective combustion control. Besides that, the frequent cleaning of the plant to free it from fly ash is just as important, since the dust is the place where the dioxins and furanes are produced in the cremation facility. Cremation facilities with low dioxin formation potential have a raw gas lo ad of between 0.3 and 1.0 ng TE/m(3) (STP) so that the reduction of these n oxious substances is possible by means of single stage processes at a reduc tion rate of > 95 %. Only the catalyst process can be considered for the ac tual destruction of dioxins and furanes. All other processes do not elimina te, but only adsorb them on a sorption agent.