Safe sink for hazardous substances
On its site in Antwerp Indaver ensures hazardous substances are destroyed. These waste products are released by chemical or industrial business or in hospitals for example. 3 rotary kiln incinerators incinerate organic waste. Extensive flue-gas cleaning ensures the flue gases are purified before they leave the chimney. In the physico-chemical plants, we treat inorganic streams by neutralising and immobilising them. A fully-equipped landfill site is used for the sustainable and safe storage of waste products that are not eligible for incineration. Indaver thus ensures hazardous substances such as asbestos, mercury or Covid-related waste are removed from our society. For PFAS we also want to offer a solution to remove these substances from our society. And we do so with the greatest care for people and the environment.
Request for stricter discharge standards
In 2019 the Indaver’s discharge license for PFAS components was tightened up considerably. At the end of 2021, Indaver submitted a new license request whereby we suggested stricter standards for PFAS components. During the license procedure, several parties gave advice. We are expecting the new stricter license over the course of the next few weeks.
Measures to limit impact
Indaver constantly uses the best available technologies to restrict the impact of its activities on the environment. Based on new developments, we have invested in additional purification steps for the water purification plant over the last few months. Consequently, the water purification plants have recently been equipped with 2 sets of 3 activated carbon filters. A 4th filter will also be added. Thanks to this connected filtering, residues from the PFAS components are captured using the best available technology for water purification on an industrial scale. Our extensive analysis programme demonstrates how well this set-up functions.
We are confident that, thanks to all of these investments we can capture the maximum amount of any remaining PFAS molecules after the destruction process.
Thermal processing in high-performance rotary kiln incinerators
The European Regulation for POPs makes it compulsory for these persistent organic pollutants to be converted irreversibly. Waste incineration at high temperatures is an appropriate and compulsory processing technique for treating waste products with high concentrations of very persistent organic pollutants such as pesticides, herbicides, PCBs, dioxins and therefore also PFAS-compounds.
The rotary kiln incinerators operate at a very high temperature. The PFAS molecules are destroyed not only thanks to the high temperatures, but also thanks to the movement in the kiln (the turbulence) and the time the molecule spends in the high-temperature zone (the time). These 3 elements, temperature - time - turbulence, are crucial for the breakdown of persistent organic pollutants.
10 years ago, the rotary kiln incinerators were permitted to operate at a temperature of at least 950 °C, but in reality the plants use temperatures of over 1000 °C. The extremely strict monitoring obligation in Flanders demonstrates that incineration under these conditions still ensures the efficient breakdown of POPs such as dioxins, for example, in line with all license requirements. Regular government inspections corroborate this.
Measuring method and testing framework
Until now, there has been no validated measuring method to establish the presence of PFAS residues in the flue gases. There is also no validated assessment framework or scientifically-supported toxicity values for the various PFAS components.
However, as a company we believe it is important to take a pioneering role in this area in order to realise our sustainable approach. Over the past few months, working alongside the research institution VITO, Indaver has taken regular samples and conducted measurements on the flue gases with a view to developing a sampling method and an analysis system. This will make it possible to conduct scientifically-supported measurements in the future and assess them. Over the next few months, the sampling and analysis method will be tested in third parties’ independent laboratories.
In the meantime, VITO has also been commissioned by the government to work on the creation of an assessment framework based on the existing scientific knowledge on PFAS. An assessment framework will make it possible to check the results of measurements against a standard.
Indaver will facilitate measurements on the flue gases so that a method can be refined and the results can be assessed from a scientific perspective and with concern for people and the environment.
Indaver attaches great importance to finding solutions for hazardous substances that are present in our society. We do this sustainably and with the best-available technologies, so that these substances can be destroyed to the maximum possible extent. We will also conduct further research in the future so that we can offer even better solutions. We will do this in consultation with all of the stakeholders involved, the government, the inspection services and the residents who live near our sites.