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Development of a Submerged Thermal Plasma Process for Combustion of Organic Liquid Waste

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Abstract

A process for the destruction of organic liquid waste has been developed in which a nontransferred arc plasma torch is operated with oxygen as the plasma gas; the originality of this process is that the plasma jet composed by the plasma forming gases and the combustion products is immersed in an aqueous solution: the objective is to convert the organic fraction into CO2 and H2O, to condense the H2O, and to trap in solution the mineral content of the waste. In addition to maintain the process at room temperature, the solution also ensures most of the functions of an off-gas treatment system: cooling, filtration, and neutralization. We describe the development of the experimental setup developed on the basis of extended test results, with particular attention to the head-end stages of the torch designed to improve the combustion efficiency. The results presented here are focused on incineration of a mixture of tributylphosphate and dodecane: mineralization rate is better than 99 % and phosphorus capture is better than 98 %.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) Marcoule, DTCD/SCDV/LPIC, BP 17171, 30207, Bagnols-Sur-Cèze Cedex, France

    Majdi Mabrouk, Mickael Marchand, Aldo Russello & Florent Lemont

  2. University of Limoges, GRESE 123 Avenue Albert Thomas, 87060, Limoges, France

    Jean Marie Baronnet

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  1. Majdi Mabrouk
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  2. Mickael Marchand
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  3. Aldo Russello
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  4. Jean Marie Baronnet
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  5. Florent Lemont
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Correspondence to Majdi Mabrouk.

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Mabrouk, M., Marchand, M., Russello, A. et al. Development of a Submerged Thermal Plasma Process for Combustion of Organic Liquid Waste. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 35, 45–60 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-014-9587-4

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