Disposal of PCB
AssigneeRockwell International Corporation
InventorLeRoy F. Grantham
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Abstract
A process for the decomposition of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) with negligible environmental pollution. The process comprises feeding the PCB and a source of oxygen to a molten salt comprising an alkali metal carbonate and preferably also an alkali metal sulfate to decompose the PCB by pyrolysis and oxidation. Some of the resulting decomposition products react with and are retained in the molten salt; the remaining gaseous products pass through the melt and are safely exhaustable to the atmosphere or, alternatively, the PCB is introduced into a first zone for partial pyrolysis and oxidation and then into a second reaction zone for further oxidation of any remaining combustible gases.
Claims7
A process for the decomposition of a polychlorinated biphenyl resulting in negligible environmental pollution comprising feeding the polychlorinated biphenyl and a source of oxygen into a pool of a molten salt maintained at a temperature between 700.degree. and 1000.degree. C., and salt comprising an alkali metal carbonate or a mixture of alkali metal carbonates to thermally decompose and at least partially oxidize said polychlorinated biphenyl to form decomposition products including a gaseous effluent and venting said gaseous effluent product consisting essentially only of gases selected from carbon dioxide, water vapor, oxygen and nitrogen to the atmosphere while retaining the remaining decomposition products of the polychlorinated biphenyl in the melt.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.