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CHAPTER 10
Cracking of Toxic Waste
R. Prakash*, R. Siddharth*, N. Gunasekar †
* School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Vellore, India
† Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Coimbatore, India
10.1 INTRODUCTION
Any material that exists in liquid, solid or gaseous form and causes harm
on human beings when being inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the
skin is termed as toxic material. Many chemical and pharmaceutical prod-
ucts that are used in health-care facilities end up with health risk owing
to their properties (toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic, irritant, cor-
rosive, sensitizing, explosive, flammable, etc.). These can be contacted by
several routes such as: inhalation of gas, vapor, or droplets, contact with the
skin or mucous membranes, or ingestion. There are few substances which
when mixed can generate toxic gases ([Ex] chlorine and acids). The domes-
tic appliances used in day to day life like televisions, computers, and phones
contain toxic chemicals that pollute the air, soil, and water. Disposing of
such waste is a major issue.
10.2 TOXIC WASTE WORLDWIDE—STATUS
Although waste reduction and recycling are preferable to the treatment and
disposal of wastes, they are not always possible. This is particularly true for
many wastes contaminated by cyanide compounds which will, for the fore-
seeable future, continue to be land disposed. These waste streams arise from
different process industries such as those wastes from manufacturing syn-
thetic fiber (acrylonitrile), coal conversion wastes or coking effluents (from
the iron and steel industries), electroplating waste, petrochemical wastes,
automobile industry waste (from plating shops), and wastes from the pro-
cessing of precious metals resources by cyanidation [1].
Waste plastics contribute to serious environmental and social problems,
such as the loss of natural resources, environmental pollution, and depletion
of landfill space, but they also create demands on the environmentally ori-
ented part of the society. Feedstock recycling of scrap polymers by thermal
Energy from Toxic Organic Waste for Heat and Power Generation © 2019 Elsevier Ltd.
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102528-4.00010-9 All rights reserved. 139
