Analysis of the chloroorganics trapped in the mineral matrix of fly ash.

Incineration is often considered as the most efficient process for urban wa ste destruction. Although it is a rather clean technique, it is often suspe cted to be the source of severe pollutions such as metal pollution or dioxi n and furan emissions. In order to reduce hazardous emissions, various oper ating furnace parameters can be controlled, like gas residence time, flame temperature and excess air flow rate, among others. According to European r egulations, incineration fly ash corresponds to class 1 disposal landfills, which demonstrates that it is considered as a toxic waste. The aim of this work was to develop a non equilibrium plasma process in order to study the behaviour of chloroorganics trapped on fly ash by on-line mass spectrometr ic analysis. The identification of the desorption of chloroorganics trapped within the mineral matrix presents juridical and scientific aspects. This study shows the existence of chemical reactions between the excited species produced from the plasma and the molecules desorbed from the mineral matri x of By ash during the plasma treatment through the chemical analysis of th e gaseous effluent. Special emphasis was put on the physicochemical propert ies of fly ash (composition of mineral matrix, particles size...).