Emissions of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from sludge drying beds to the atmosphere in Chicago.

Ambient air PCB concentrations in the Lake Calumet region in Southeast Chicago have been found to be significantly higher than in nearby non-urban areas. This area is highly industrialized and also contains municipal sludge drying facilities and landfills. In an effort to quantify the importance of the sludge drying facilities to the elevated concentrations, upwind/downwind air samples from the Calumet East sludge drying bed were obtained between April and October 2002. For these samples, the downwind minus upwind (downwind-upwind) concentration varied from 0.33 to 1.27ngm(-3) for non-northeast (NE) direction winds suggesting sludge drying is a source of PCBs to the atmosphere. However, the upwind concentrations were higher than the downwind for winds from the NE of the sampling site suggesting more significant source(s), possibly Lake Calumet or the so called "Cluster site" NE of the sludge drying beds. Flux chamber experiments carried out during the sampling period measured average PCB fluxes of 210ngm(-2)h(-1) (range 43-910ngm(-2)h(-1)) which resulted in an overall flux of 0.005kgday (d)(-1) ( approximately 2kgyr(-1)). A developed regression equation between moisture content and sludge concentration estimated higher PCB losses of 0.26kgd(-1) ( approximately 95kgyr(-1)). Although these two approaches yielded different values, they both indicate that the emission from the Calumet East sludge drying beds were of minimal importance when compared to the total estimated amount of 2-70kgd(-1) (700-2100kgyr(-1)) of PCBs entering the Chicago atmosphere.

Effects of oxygen, catalyst and PVC on the formation of PCDDs, PCDFs and dioxin-like PCBs in pyrolysis products of automobile residues.

End-of-life vehicles are dismantled to recover reusable parts and then sent to a shredding facility for steel material recovery. The residue generated from the shredding process, so-called automobile shredder residue, is now being mostly disposed in landfill, however landfill will be prohibited in the near future. More recycling and energy recovery must be made by the regulation. The most appropriate method is the thermal treatment that will produce various forms of fuels and less volume of vitrified residue. In this research, an automobile shredder residue was simulated with considering the residue from a shredding factory based on the new vehicle and thermally treated by pyrolysis or gasification to observe the yields of gas, oil and char. In the temperature range of 400-800 degrees C, the yields of gas, oil, and char were 38.7-45.8%, 12.3-18.2%, and 36.0-49.0%, respectively. The optimum pyrolyzing temperature for more oil production was around 600 degrees C. Emission characteristics of the byproducts, PCDDs, PCDFs and dioxin-like PCBs were studied at the temperature of 600 degrees C. The analysis on the concentration and distribution of the isomers in various forms of the products were completed with and without oxygen, PVC, and catalytic metals, in order to observe how the existence of oxygen, PVC, and catalytic metals affect the formation of PCDDs, PCDFs, and dioxin-like PCBs from pyrolysis or gasification process. Without PVC, no PCDDs, PCDFs and dioxin-like PCBs were found in any products. PCDFs were predominant in any conditions. Catalyst and oxygen were found to affect to form more PCDDs, PCDFs, and dioxin-like PCBs. Effects of catalyst and oxygen on the byproduct formation seemed to be similar in oil and gas while that was different in char.