Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are liquids or solids that contain organic carbon (carbon bonded to carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, or sulfur, but not carbonate carbon as in CaCO3 nor carbide carbon as in CaC2 or CO or CO2), which vaporize at significant rates. VOCs are probably the second-most widespread and diverse class of emissions after particulates
Solid wastes comprise all the wastes arising from human and animal activities that are normally solid and that are discarded as useless or unwanted. The term solid waste as used in this text is all-inclusive, encompassing the heterogeneous mass of throwaways from the urban community as well as the more homogeneous accumulation of agricultural, industrial
Solid wastes include all solid or semisolid materials that the possessor no longer considers of sufficient value to retain. The management of these waste materials is the fundamental concern of all the activities encompassed in solid waste management—whether the planning level is local, regional or subregional, or state and federal. For this reason, it is important to know as much about municipal solid waste (MSW) as possible. The purpose of this chapter is to identify the sources, types, and composition of solid wastes
The control of particulates and VOCs is mostly accomplished by physical processes (cyclones, ESPs, filters, leakage control, vapor capture, condensation) that do not involve changing the chemical nature of the pollutant. Some particles and VOCs are chemically changed into harmless materials by combustion. This chapter and the next concern pollutants--sulfur oxides and nitrogen
Every community produces both liquid and solid wastes and air emissions. The liquid waste-wastewater, is essentially the water supply of the community after it has been used in a variety of applications. From the standpoint of sources of generation, wastewater may be defined as a combination of the liquid or water-carried wastes removed from residences
The first three types of control devices we consider--gravity settlers, cyclone separators, and electrostatic precipitators--all function by driving the particles to a solid wall, where they adhere to each other to form agglomerates that can be removed from the collection device and disposed of
