Co-firing of paper sludge with high-calorific industrial wastes in a pilot-scale nozzle-grate incinerator.

Experiments on the co-firing of high-calorific industrial wastes with paper sludge were performed in a pilot-scale industrial waste incinerator with a nozzle-type grate system. The incineration capacity was approximately 160kg/h. The temporal variations in the temperatures and exhaust gas emissions were monitored and used as parameters for determining the desirable incineration conditions. The high CO emissions that were mainly due to the rapid vaporization of combustibles from high-calorific industrial wastes could be alleviated through the co-firing of sludge with the high-calorific industrial wastes. Because of the high nitrogen content in the sludge, the increase in the co-firing rate caused higher NO emissions in the flue gas. If the total calorific value of the feed was lower than 750,000kcal/h, for 25-30% of sludge co-firing, the temperature of gases exiting the secondary combustion chamber might be lower than that required by regulations.

Design and application of an inertial impactor in combination with an ATP bioluminescence detector for in situ rapid estimation of the efficacies of air controlling devices on removal of bioaerosols.

We proposed a rapid method to estimate the efficacies of air controlling devices in situ using ATP bioluminescence in combination with an inertial impactor. The inertial impactor was designed to have 1 mum of cutoff diameter, and its performance was estimated analytically, numerically, and experimentally. The proposed method was characterized using Staphylococcus epidermidis, which was aerosolized with a nebulizer. The bioaerosol concentrations were estimated within 25 min using the proposed method without a culturing process, which requires several days for colony formation. A linear relationship was obtained between the results of the proposed ATP method (RLU/m(3)) and the conventional culture-based method (CFU/m(3)), with R(2) 0.9283. The proposed method was applied to estimate the concentration of indoor bioaerosols, which were identified as a mixture of various microbial species including bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes, in an occupational indoor environment, controlled by mechanical ventilation and an air cleaner. Consequently, the proposed method showed a linearity with the culture-based method for indoor bioaerosols with R(2) 0.8189, even though various kinds of microorganisms existed in the indoor air. The proposed method may be effective in monitoring the changes of relative concentration of indoor bioaerosols and estimating the effectiveness of air control devices in indoor environments.