Characterization of emissions during the heating of tyre contaminated scrap

In order to characterize the compounds (type and quantities) emitted during melting of organic contaminated scrap and to investigate the mechanism of their formation, an experimental set-up has been designed and built to stud y precisely the influence of temperature and gas atmosphere in the conditio ns of an electric are furnace. These experiments lead to the determination of mass balances (C, H, O, S) and to the quantification of unburnt compound s (tars, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), benzene, tolue ne, ethylbenzene and xylenes (BTEX), polyaromatic compounds (PAHs)). Degrad ation conditions (gas atmosphere and temperature) corresponding to differen t areas in the electric furnace have also been investigated. Such experimen ts lead to a better understanding of degradation mechanisms; this interpret ation is not possible from investigations performed in an industrial furnac e since there are many uncontrolled parameters (large dispersion of the res ults). (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.