LA-2561 -- Economics of Converting Thermal Incineration Systems to Catalytic Operation PDF

Increasing fuel costs and, in some cases, unavailability of fuel supplies have increased the impetus for consideration of catalytic incineration systems in the past two years.

For many organic emission control problems, no viable alternative to incineration is available, and the principal consideration is the selection between catalytic and thermal incineration, and the trade off between the potentially high fuel consumption and the capital cost of heat recovery equipment. As fuel costs and the capital cost of heat recovery devices increase, the balance swings toward catalytic incineration.

It has become economical to convert thermal incinerators to catalytic operation in order to reduce fuel consumption without the cost of additional heat recovery equipment. This paper describes the relative economics of continued operation of thermal incineration equipment and conversion to catalytic operation in general terms, and describes several specific conversions. In each case, the cost of conversion could be justified on the basis of energy cost savings in less than two years.