ABSTRACT

Disasters occur due to both the natural and man-made activities. Hazards and
Disasters are categorized into four groups, viz., Natural events, Technological events,
Man-made events and Region-wise events. The adverse impacts caused due to the
indiscriminate disposal of Hazardous Wastes (HWs) come under the category of
Environmental Disasters. Hazardous Waste Management (HWM) is a very important
issue and is assuming significance globally. Very few industries in India, mostly in
large scale and a few in medium scale, own proper treatment and disposal facilities. A
common waste treatment and disposal facility such as Treatment, Storage and
Disposal Facility (TSDF) for management of HWs generated from industries is one of
the useful options under such conditions. Few Guidelines issued by Ministry of
Environment and Forests under Hazardous Wastes (Management & Handling) Rules,
1989 promulgated under Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 are available in India for
selection of best site for TSDF. The planning for HWM comprises of several aspects
ranging from identification and quantification of HW to development and monitoring
of TSDF. This report work aims at studying various methods used in managing
hazardous wastes which can be effectively applied in developing countries like
INDIA.

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 CONTENTS

1. Introduction
2. Classification of Hazardous waste
3. Basic approach in Hazardous waste
4. Treatment of Hazardous waste
4.1. Biological Treatment
4.2. Chemical Treatment
4.3. Ion Exchange
4.4. Carbon Adsorption
4.5. Membrane Separetion
4.6. Incineration
5. Storage of Hazardous waste
5.1. Container
5.2. Tanks
5.3. Drip Pad
6. Disposal of Hazardous waste
6.1. Deep Well Injection
6.2. Land Fill
7. Coclusion
8. Reference

1.

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1. INTRODUCTION
A hazardous waste is any waste or combination of wastes that poses a
substantial danger, now or in the future, to human, plant or animal life and which
therefore cannot be handled or disposed of without special precautions.
The Hazards and Disasters can be classified into four categories viz., Natural
events, Technological events, Man-made events and Region-wise events. The adverse
impacts caused due to the indiscriminate disposal of Hazardous Wastes (HWs) come
under the category of Environmental Disasters.
For example, in 1982, 2242 residents are evacuated after dioxin is found in soil
in Missouri, U.S.A. In 1996-97, 265354 tonnes of soil and other dioxin-contaminated
material from Times Beach (Missouri, U.S.A) and 26 other sites in eastern Missouri
had been incinerated. Release of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas in Bhopal (1984)
caused a severe disaster in India. So there is a growing concern all over the world for
the safe disposal of hazardous waste generated from anthropogenic sources.

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2. CLASSIFICATION OF HAZARDOUS WASTE
US EPA has designated five categories considered as hazardous:

1. Specific type of wastes from nonspecific sources:

a. Halogenated &non-halogenated solvents.
b. Electro-plating sludges.
c. Cyanide solutions from plating batches.

2. Specific types of wastes from specific sources;

a. Oven residue from production of chrome oxide green segments
b. Brine purification muds from the mercury cell process in chlorine production

3. Specific substances identified as acute hazardous waste:

a. Potassium silver cyanide
b. Toxaphene
c. Arsenic oxide.

4. Specific substances identified as hazardous wastes

e.g. Xylene, DDT, carbon tetrachloride

5. Characteristic wastes:
Wastes not specifically identified elsewhere exhibiting properties of:
ignitability, corrosivity, reactivity, or toxicity.

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3. BASIC APPROACH IN HAZRDOUS WASTE
MANAGEMENT
OBJECTIVES

A logical priority in managing hazardous waste would be to:

1. Reduce the amount of hazardous wastes generated in the first place.
2. Stimulate waste exchange:
One factorys hazardous wastes can become anothers feedstock; e.g. acid and
solvent wastes from some industries can be utilized by others without
processing.
3. Recycle metals, the energy content, and other useful resources contained in
hazardous wastes.
4. Detoxify and neutralize liquid hazardous waste streams by chemical and biological
treatment.
5. Destroy combustible hazardous wastes in special high-temperature incinerators
equipped with proper pollution control and monitoring systems.
6. Dispose of remaining treated residues in specially designed landfills.
7. Treatment, storage, disposal facility (TSDF) requirements-
Treatment:
Any method, technique, or process, including neutralization, designed to
change the physical, chemical, or biological character or composition of any
hazardous waste so as to neutralize it or render it nonhazardous or less
hazardous, to recover it, make it safer to transport, store, or dispose of or make
it amenable for recovery, storage, or volume reduction.
Storage:
The holding of hazardous waste for a temporary period, at the end of
which the hazardous waste is treated, disposed, or stored elsewhere.
Disposal:
The discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing
of any solid waste or hazardous waste into or on any land or water so that any
constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or
discharged into any waters, including ground waters.

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4. TREATMENT OF HAZARDOUS WASTE
Treatment when used in connection with an operation involved in hazardous
waste management, means any method, technique, or process, including
neutralization or incineration, designed to change the physical, chemical, or biological
character or composition of a hazardous waste, so as to neutralize such waste or to
render such waste less hazardous, safer for transport, amenable for recovery or reuse,
amenable for storage, or reduced in volume. Wastes remain after the implementation
of waste minimisation must be treated to detoxify and neutralise them. There are large
numbers of treatment technologies available.

Examples:

Biological oxidation
Chemical precipitation, oxidation-reduction
Ion exchange
Carbon adsorption
Membrane separation
Other/new technologies

4.1 BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT

Synthetic chemical compounds are relatively resistant to biodegradation.

Microorganisms that are naturally present often cannot produce the enzymes
necessary to degrade complex compounds and these compounds are toxic thus killing
the biomass. Co-treatment of industrial and domestic waste with the addition of
nutrients in biological systems is often a practical system that has been tested in India
as a cheap and effective compared to chemical treatments. It consists of the
introduction of food they consume, alter and detoxify the waste. This is what is called
secondary processing. Table 2 demonstrates that members of almost every class of
anthropogenic compound can be degraded by some microorganism the table also
illustrates the wide variety of organisms that participate in environmental significant
biodegradation.

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Table 2- Examples of anthropogenic compounds and microorganisms that can
degrade them

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4.2 CHEMICAL TREATMENT

Chemical treatment of hazardous waste refers to the treatment methods that are
used to effect the complete breakdown of hazardous waste into non-toxic gases or,
more frequently, to modify the chemical properties of the waste, for example, through
reduction of water solubility or neutralisation of acidity or alkalinity. Various
chemical treatment methods are chemical oxidation-reduction, acid-base
neutralisation, precipitation, hydrolysis, ion exchange, thermal treatment methods,
wet air oxidation photolysis and biodegradation. 4.2.1 Oxidation-reduction Oxidation
reduction methods provide another important chemical treatment alternative for
hazardous wastes. One important chemical redox treatment involves the oxidation of
cyanide wastes from metal finishing industry, using chlorine in alkali solution. In this
reaction CN- is first converted to a less toxic cyanate. Further chlorination oxidises
the cyanate to simple carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas.

Ozonolysis

Ozone is a very powerful oxidising agent. Although this process has not been
demonstrated in any full-scale facility, its application to Tetrachlorodibenzodioxin
(TCDD) and Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) is quite promising. With respect to
TCDD it was demonstrated that if the dioxins were suspended as an aerosol combined
with CCl4, 97% degradation of TCDD was possible. Ozone in conjunction with UV
radiation has been shown effective for the destruction of polychlorinated phenols and
pesticides. In both the cases the key requirements were to concentrate the TCDD in a
medium where they were susceptible to attack and provide a free radical for reaction
with dioxin molecule. Acid-base neutralisation Hazardous wastes are categorised as
corrosive when their solution pH is less than 2 or more than 12.5. Such wastes can be
chemically neutralised. Generally acidic wastes are neutralised with slaked lime
[Ca(OH)2] in a continuously stirred chemical reactor. The rate of addition of lime is
controlled by feedback control system which monitors pH during addition. Lime is
least expensive and is widely used for treating acidic wastes. Since the solubility of
lime in water is limited, solution of excess lime does not reach extremely high pH
values. Alkaline wastes may be neutralised by adding sulphuric acid. It is a relatively

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inexpensive acid. For some applications acetic acid is preferable since it is non-toxic
and biodegradable. Alkaline wastes can also be neutralised by bubbling gaseous
carbon dioxide forming carbonic acid. The advantage of CO2 is that it is often readily
available in the exhaust gas from any combustion process at the treatment site.

Chemical precipitation

This technique can be applied to almost any liquid waste stream containing a
perceptible hazardous constituent. By properly adjusting pH, the solubility of toxic
metals can be decreased, leading to the formation of a precipitate that can be removed
by settling and filtration. Quite often lime [Ca] or caustic soda is used for
precipitation of the metal ions as metal hydroxides. For example the following
reaction suggests the use of lime to precipitate the metal as hydroxide.

4.3 ION EXCHANGE:

Ion exchange is judged to have some potential for the application of interest in
situations where it is necessary to remove dissolved inorganic species. However other
competing processes - precipitation, flocculation and sedimentation - are broadly
applicable to mixed waste streams containing suspended solids and a spectrum of
organic and inorganic species. These competing processes also usually are more
economical. The use of ion exchange is therefore limited to situations where polishing
step was required to remove an inorganic constituent that could not be reduced to
satisfactory levels by preceding treatment processes.

4.4 CARBON ADSORPTION

The principal use of vapour phase activated carbon in the environmental field is
for the removal of volatile organic compounds such as hydrocarbons, solvents, toxic

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gases and organic based odours. In addition, chemically impregnated activated
carbons can be used to control certain inorganic pollutants such as hydrogen sulphide,
mercury, or radon. When properly applied, the adsorption process will remove
pollutants for which it is designed, to virtually non detectable levels. In fact one of the
first large- scale uses of activated carbon was in military gas masks where complete
contaminant removal is essential. Carbon adsorption is equally effective on single
component emissions as well as complex mixtures of pollutants. In the industrial area,
the most common applications of activated carbon are for process off-gases, tank vent
emissions, work area air purification, and odour control, either within the plant or
related to plant exhausts. Additionally, activated carbon is used in the hazardous waste
remediation area to treat off-gases from air strippers and from soil vapour extraction
remediation projects.

Fig.1. Typical fixed-bed carbon adsorption system

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4.5 MEMBRANE SEPARATION:

Reverse osmosis:
Reverse osmosis separation technology is used to remove dissolved impurities
from water through the use of a semi-permeable spiral wound membrane. Reverse
osmosis involves the reversal of flow through a membrane from high salinity, or a
concentrated solution to the high purity, or permeate, stream on the opposite side of
the membrane. Your water pressure is used as the driving force for this separation.
The applied pressure must be in excess of the osmotic pressure of the dissolved
contaminants to allow flow across the membrane. Spiral wound membranes are
tightly packed filter material sandwiched between mesh spacers and wrapped in a
small diameter tube. The membrane's operating conditions are fine-tuned to balance
the flux, or the amount of water which passes through the membrane, with the specific
rejection rates of Drinking Water Contaminants up to 99.8%. Spiral wound
membranes are cost-effective thin-film elements used to remove salts and separate
organic material, by molecular weight or particle charge. The technology is also very
effective at removing bacteria, pyrogens, and organic contaminants.

Fig 2. Spiral wound reverse osmosis

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4.6 INCINERATION

An engineering process that employs thermal decomposition via thermal

oxidation at high temperatures (800-1600 C) to convert a waste to a lower volume and
non-hazardous material. Products from combustion of organic wastes are carbon
dioxide, water vapour & inert ash. Other products can be formed depending on waste
composition. Combustion Conditions of incineration are:
Actual incineration conditions generally require excess oxygen to maximize the
formation of products of complete combustion and minimize the formation of
products of incomplete combustion.
Temperature, residence time, and turbulence are optimized to increase
destruction efficiencies.Typical residence times are 0.5 to 2 seconds.
Two types of technology dominate the incineration field (90% of all facilities):
1. Liquid injection and
2. Rotary kiln incinerators
The majority of incinerators for hazardous waste inject liquid hazardous waste
through an atomising nozzle into the combustion chamber. An auxiliary fuel such as
natural gas or fuel oil is often used when the waste is not autogenous. Hydrochloric
acid generated from chlorinated hydrocarbon wastes is neutralised by the lime in the
kiln while slightly lowering the alkalinity of cement products. Cement kilns have been
to be very efficient at destroying hazardous waste(Fig 3.).

Fig 3. Rotary kiln incinerator

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5. STORAGE OF HAZARDOUS WASTE
Storage is the holding of waste for a temporary period of time prior to the waste
being treated, disposed, or stored elsewhere. Hazardous waste is commonly stored
prior to treatment or disposal, and must be stored in containers, tanks, containment
buildings, drip pads, waste piles, or surface impoundments that comply with the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations.

5.1 CONTAINERS

A hazardous waste container is any portable device in which a hazardous waste

is stored, transported, treated, disposed, or otherwise handled. The most common
hazardous waste container is the 55-gallon drum. Other examples of containers are
tanker trucks, railroad cars, buckets, bags, and even test tubes.

Fig 4. Hazardous waste disposal container

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5.2 TANKS

Tanks are stationary devices constructed of non-earthen materials used to store

or treat hazardous waste. Tanks can be open-topped or completely enclosed and are
constructed of a wide variety of materials including steel, plastic, fibreglass, and
concrete.

Fig 5. Underground storage tank

5.3 DRIP PAD

A drip pad is a wood drying structure used by the pressure-treated

wood industry to collect excess wood preservative drippage. Drip pads are
constructed of non-earthen materials with a curbed, free-draining base that is designed
to convey wood preservative drip page to a collection system for proper management.

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6. DISPOSAL OF HAZARDOUS WASTE
Disposal is the placement of waste into or on the land. Disposal facilities are
usually designed to permanently contain the waste and prevent the release of harmful
pollutants to the environment. The most common hazardous waste disposal practice is
placement in a land disposal unit such as a landfill, surface impoundment, waste pile,
land treatment unit, or injection well. Land disposal is subject to requirements under
EPAs Land Disposal Restrictions Program.

Underground injection wells are the most commonly used disposal method for
liquid hazardous waste. Because of their potential impact upon drinking water
resources, injection wells are also regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act
(SDWA) and by the Underground Injection Control (UIC) Program.

6.1 DEEP WELL INJECTION

Deep well injection is a liquid waste disposal technology. This alternative uses
injection wells to place treated or untreated liquid waste into geologic formations that
have no potential to allow migration of contaminants into potential potable water
aquifers. A typical injection well consists of concentric pipes, which extend several
thousand feet down from the surface level into highly saline, permeable injection
zones that are confined vertically by impermeable strata. The outermost pipe or
surface casing extends below the base of any underground sources of drinking water
(USDW) and is cemented back to the surface to prevent contamination of the USDW.
Directly inside the surface casing is a long string casing that extends to and sometimes
into the injection zone. This casing is filled in with cement all the way back to the
surface in order to seal off the injected waste from the formations above the injection
zone back to the surface. The casing provides a seal between the wastes in the
injection zone and the upper formations. The waste is injected through the injection
tubing inside the long string casing either through perforation in the long string or in
the open hole below the bottom of the long string. The space between the string
casing and the injection tube, called the annulus, is filled with an inert, pressurized
fluid, and is sealed at the bottom by a removable packer preventing injected
wastewater from backing up into the annulus.

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 Fig 6. Deep well injection

Applicability and limitation

The target contaminant groups for deep well injection are VOCs, SVOCs, fuels,
explosives, and pesticides. However, existing permitted deep well injection facilities
are limited to a narrow range of specific wastes. Success at expanding existing
permits to manage hazardous wastes seems unlikely. Factors that may limit the
applicability and effectiveness of these processes include:

Injection will not be used for hazardous waste disposal in any areas where
seismic activity could potentially occur.
Injected wastes must be compatible with the mechanical components of the
injection well system and the natural formation water. The waste generator may
be required to perform physical, chemical, biological, or thermal treatment for
removal of various contaminants or constituents from the waste to modify the
physical and chemical character of the waste to assure compatibility.
High concentrations of suspended solids (typically >2 ppm) can lead to
plugging of the injection interval.
Corrosive media may react with the injection well components, with injection
zone formation, or with confining strata with very undesirable results. Wastes
should be neutralized.

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 High iron concentrations may result in fouling when conditions alter the
valence state and convert soluble to insoluble species.
Organic carbon may serve as an energy source for indigenous or injected
bacteria resulting in rapid population growth and subsequent fouling.
Waste streams containing organic contaminants above their solubility limits
may require pretreatment before injection into a well.
Site assessment and aquifer characterization are required to determine
suitability of site for wastewater injection.
Extensive assessments must be completed prior to receiving approval from
regulatory authority.

6.2 LAND FILL

The EPA defines a landfill as an engineering method of disposing of solid waste

on land. As such, landfills are required to protect the environment by spreading waste
into thin layers and compacting them into the smallest practical volume. By days end,
all waste is then covered with earth. Transfer stations have their own regulations.
They are required to have their floors clear of all waste by the end of the working day.

Operation

The cell is the basic building block of a sanitary landfill. To build a cell, waste
is spread into two-ft layers or less and compacted in thin layers as tightly as practical.
At the end of the day, a sufficient amount of cover earth (usually six in.) is spread
over waste and compacted. Sometimes an alternative material is approved for daily
cover. This may include foam, plastic, or processed landscape waste. The compacted
waste and soil constitute a cell. A series of cells that adjoin each other make up a lift.
One or more lifts constitute a fill. There are no hard and fast rules for cell height.
While four to eight feet is common, landfills handling 250 tons a day or less may have
cells less than half this height. Make the width (working face) in front of the cell as
narrow as possible to concentrate compaction efforts and reduce cover material
requirements. It must be wide enough to prevent congestion of trucks waiting to
unload. A typical face ranges from 100 to 250 ft wide.

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7. CONCLUSION

The industry driven economy of India's has resulted in hazardous waste

problems, which are difficult to manage in an environmentally friendly manner. The
lack of awareness, improper implementation of principles and laws, absence of proper
infrastructure and centralized disposal facilities, and lack of technical and financial
resources have led to the unscientific disposal of hazardous wastes posing serious
threat to human, animal and plant life.
All studies related to this matter indicate that the hazardous wastes situation in
India is fairly grim. Thus, there is an urgent need for formulating proper hazardous
waste management strategies, implementation of hazardous wastes management
regulations and establishment of proper hazardous waste treatment and disposal
facilities for controlling the unscientific disposal of hazardous wastes .This is now
being done in India, but needs more improvement with the aid of better technologies.

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8. REFERENCES

www.google.com

www.wikipedia.com

www.studymafia.org
B. V. Babu and V. Ramakrishna (2007) Hazardous waste management in India,
Birla institute of technology & science, Pilani.
Hazardous Waste (Management, Handling & Transboundary Movement) Rules
(2008), Central pollution control board, Govt. of India.
Dr. V. Rajagopalan (2006) Hazardous waste management in India- an overview,
India-EU environment forum, CPCB, Delhi.
Prof. M. S. Subramanian Chemical methods of treatment, Environmental
chemistry and analysis, module 7, IIT Madras.

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