industry and environment - DTIE

Chemicals management
A Danish company’s use of
Best Available Techniques for waste
handling and treatment
Vagn S. Christiansen,Environmental Consultant, Lennart Scherman, Production Engineer,
Per Kjærgaard, Environmental Manager, and Per Andreasen, Production Manager, Kommunekemi a/s,
Lindholmvej 3, DK-5800 Nyborg, Denmark (kk@kommunekemi.dk)
Summary
In the context of the Directive on Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control, the Danish company
Kommunekemi has contributed to the elaboration of a EU reference document on Best
Available Techniques for safer handling and treatment of hazardous waste. Several years ago
Kommunekemi faced environmental impact and occupational health and safety problems.
Two new automatic drum-emptying systems (one for liquid waste, the other for solid and pasty
waste) were installed in the 1990s. This article describes the processes used to improve environmental
and safety conditions at and around Kommunekemi’s facility.
Résumé
Dans le cadre de la Directive relative à la prévention et à la réduction intégrées de la pollution,
l’entreprise danoise Kommunekemi a participé à l’élaboration d’un document de référence de
l’UE sur les meilleures techniques pour une manipulation et un traitement plus sûrs des déchets
dangereux. Cette entreprise avait été confrontée il y a plusieurs années à des problèmes
d’impacts sur l’environnement, d’hygiène et de sécurité du travail. Deux nouveaux systèmes
automatiques de vidange de fûts (un pour les déchets liquides, l’autre pour les déchets solides
et pâteux) ont été installés dans les années 1990. L’article décrit les procédés employés pour
améliorer l’état de l’environnement et les conditions de sécurité à l’intérieur de l’usine et dans
les environs.
Resumen
En el marco de la Directiva sobre Prevención y Control Integrales de la Contaminación, la
empresa danesa Kommunekemi ha contribuido a la preparación de un documento de referencia
de la UE sobre las mejores técnicas disponibles para el manejo y tratamiento seguros de
los desechos peligros. Hace varios años Kommunekemi enfrentó problemas de impacto ambiental
y salud y seguridad ocupacional. En la década de 1990 se instalaron dos nuevos sistemas
automáticos de tambor de vaciado (uno para desechos líquidos y otro para desechos
sólidos y de consistencia pastosa). Este artículo describe los procesos empleados a fin de mejorar
las condiciones ambientales y de seguridad en el interior y los alrededores de las instalaciones
de Kommunekemi.
The European Union’s Integrated Pollution
Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive,
adopted in 1996, provides a framework for
issuing operating permits to installations that carry
out the types of industrial activities described in
Annex 1 to the Directive. 1 These permits are to set
out conditions based on Best Available Techniques
(BAT), as these are defined in the Directive, to
achieve a high level of protection of the environment
as a whole.
The European IPPC Bureau 2 catalyzes the
exchange of technical information on Best Available
Techniques. It creates reference documents
(BREFs) which Member States are required to
take into account in when they determine conditions
for the delivery of operating permits. BREFs
inform decision-makers about what may be technically
and economically available to industry to
improve environmental performance.
In the spring of 2004 the IPPC Bureau proposed
the elaboration of a BREF describing the
different techniques used to treat waste in EU
countries. Kommunekemi 3 contributed to the
draft BREF on hazardous waste incineration by
describing some special pre-treatment and flue gas
cleaning operations.
Kommunekemi is located east of the city of
Nyborg, Denmark, within ten metres of a golf
course. It is next to a food producing company; to
the north is a public camping site near a beach.
Kommunekemi’s location puts a focus on the use
of Best Available Techniques concurrently with
the company’s development.
Today Kommunekemi has three modern rotary
kiln plants with a total annual treatment capacity
of 180,000 tonnes of hazardous waste. In 2003 it
received and treated well over 120,000 tonnes of
hazardous waste from Denmark and abroad.
Along with the development of the incineration
facility, there has been a focus on developing pretreatment
plant and possible recycling techniques
and the utilization of heat from the processes.
These processes are described below. Great attention
is continuously paid to emissions monitoring
and to off-gas ventilation from storage tanks, etc.
The drum-emptying systems
For several years all packaged liquid waste for
incineration was manually emptied into a vacuum
tank, using a hose, and then pumped to storage
tanks. Solid packaged waste was manually cut
up and subdivided into portions a maximum of
100 kilograms in size. Drums containing the
waste were then fed directly into the rotary kilns.
However, the plant faced a series of problems
concerning the external environment and occupational
health and safety. These resulted in the
establishment of two new automatic drum-emptying
systems in the 1990s, one for liquid waste
and the other for solid and pasty waste.
The drum-emptying system for liquid
waste
The original plant for emptying liquid waste was
replaced by a closed, automatic plant (Figure 1)
in which drums and other packaging with liquid
contents are cut up into fragments in a double
shredder.
Packaging is carried on a roller conveyor from
the reception and unloading area to the feeding
sluice. At this stage individual packaging is identified
by bar codes. The process control system
ensures that waste has been approved for treatment
at the plant. The feeding sluice is flushed
with nitrogen until the danger of an explosion is
eliminated. Packaging then slides into the shredder,
where it is cut up into 5-10 centimetre fragments.
After thorough mixing, small pieces of packaging
are sorted using a sieve. A magnetic separator
divides them into magnetic and non-magnetic
scrap. The magnetic fraction is washed and delivered
to a steel mill for recycling. The non-magnetic
fraction, consisting mainly of plastic, wooden
and other parts that cannot be dissolved, is incinerated
in rotary kilns.
Having passed the sieve, the liquid waste is further
homogenized and continuously stirred to
52 ◆ UNEP Industry and Environment April – September 2004