Process and plant for the hydrothermal treatment of asbestos and/or asbestos-containing materials in supercritical water

Abstract

Herein described is a process for the hydrothermal treatment of asbestos and/or materials containing asbestos in supercritical water (Supercritical Water, SCW), that provides for the withdrawal (3) of water from a tank (2), the transformation (5) of the water in supercritical water, the reaction of the supercritical water with asbestos or with material containing asbestos in a suitable environment (8) by means of a hydrolysis process, the cooling (14) of the waste water, the filtering (15) of the waste water, the collection of the waste water in a tank (17). Herein is also described a plant for the treatment of asbestos and/or materials containing asbestos comprising a water tank (2), a withdrawal pump (3) associated to said tank (2), a furnace (4) containing a serpentine coil (5) fed by said withdrawal pump (3) for the transformation of the water in supercritical water and a reactor (8) for the reaction of the supercritical water with asbestos and/or with the material containing asbestos, heat exchange means (14) for cooling the waste water from said furnace (4), and filtering means (15) of the water positioned at the output of said exchange means (14) and collection means (17) of the cooled and filtered waste water.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.