Improper Municipal Solid Waste Essay

Improper Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal and management causes all types of pollution: air, soil, and water. Indiscriminate dumping of wastes contaminates surface and ground water supplies. In urban areas, solid waste clogs drains, creating stagnant water for insect breeding and floods during rainy seasons. Uncontrolled burning of MSW and improper incineration contributes significantly to urban air pollution. Greenhouse gases are generated from the decomposition of organic wastes in landfills, and untreated leachate pollutes surrounding soil and water bodies. Health and safety issues also arise from improper Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM). Insect and rodent vectors are attracted to the waste and can spread diseases such as cholera and dengue fever. Using water polluted by MSW for bathing, food irrigation and

Pyrolysis: Pyrolysis is defined as thermal degradation of waste in the absence of air to produce char, pyrolysis oil and syngas, e.g. the conversion of wood to charcoal also it is defined as destructive distillation of waste in the absence of oxygen. External source of heat is employed in this process. Because most organic substances are thermally unstable they can upon heating in an oxygen-free atmosphere be split through a combination of thermal cracking and condensation reactions into gaseous, liquid and solid fraction (U.S Environment Protection Agency, 2009).

D. Gasification: Gasification is a process in which partial combustion of MSW is carried out in the presence of oxygen, but in lesser amount than that is required for complete combustion, to generate a combustible gas (fuel gas) rich in carbon monoxide and hydrogen e.g. the conversion of coal into town gas. When a gasifier is operated at atmospheric pressure with air as the oxidant, the end products of the gasification process are a low-energy gas typically containing (by volume) 20% CO, 15% H2, 10% CO2 and 2% CH4 ( U.S Environment Protection Agency, 2009).

1.4 WASTE