Sizing Incineration for Base-Load Energy

Many state and country codes require that Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) are either captured or destroyed before they are emitted to the atmosphere. This measure requires designing and operating refrigeration systems that would evaporate, condense and separate the VOC from air stream, or more commonly, install afterburners to combust the VOCs. Both condensation and combustion related abatement technologies involve large capital and maintenance costs. In the case of combusting the VOC, fuel is usually added to the air/VOC mixture for proper air/fuel ratio and effective combustion. The resulting high temperature gas free from VOC is often emitted to the ambient with little or no value captured from the energy intensive process. Regulations limiting the emission of VOCs continue to grow. Paint and coating lines and manufacturing processes that involve emission of chemical vapors such as carpet manufacturing, produce large amounts of VOC that needs to be oxidized. Other incinerators that do not necessarily involve VOCs, such as kiln systems also produce large energy waste. Thermodynamically, the VOC destruction combustion process is simply a total waste of energy unless it allows some waste recovery. Afterburners are typically designed for environmental reasons, ignoring the energy cost, which is accepted as an inevitable penalty. This paper discusses the feasibility of selecting incinerators as a Gas Turbine Oxidizer (GTO) sized for the base-energy load. So sized GTO could produce process heat, generate electric power, shave energy peaks, and reduce air pollution without compromising the primary intent of effectively destroying VOCs.