Treatment of PCB fluids
Thermal disposal of PCB fluids
Envio provides safe and affordable elimination of PCB fluids. The liquids are professionally packed and brought to specialist incineration facilities – either within Europe or in the country of origin. There the fluids containing PCBs are completely destroyed through high temperature incineration. Occasionally, we can research and provide the option of other non-combustion methods to destroy PCB fluids.
Chemical decontamination of PCB fluids with sodium
The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) states that sodium treatment is “the most common technology […] to dechlorinate PCB molecules and yield an oil which can be re-used” ('Survey of Currently Available Non-Incineration PCB Destruction Technologies', First Issue, August 2000).
The underlying chemical principle for the decontamination is the breaking down of the C-Cl bond with a subsequent formation of NaCl (sodium chloride) and other chlorine-free, organic molecules.
The residual materials of the treatment process are sodium salt as well as different aromatic non-halogenated hydrocarbons. The amount of residual materials resulting from the dechlorination is proportionate to the amount of PCBs in the treated fluids. For oil, which contains 1,000 ppm of PCB, the entire amount of residual materials is less than 1% of the weight of the oil.
The organic residual materials are either deposited or recycled according to the relevant preparation, for example, for energy production. Non-organic materials are collected separately with any excessive sodium there may be and are then disposed of accordingly.