Impact of Air Pollution Control Devices on VOC Profiles and Emissions from Municipal Waste Incineration Plant

With the rapid development of urbanization, municipal waste incineration (MWI) has become the primary method of waste disposal in urban areas, leading to growing concerns about volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions. This study conducted full-process VOC field sampling at a representative MWI plant in China to investigate the emission characteristics and removal efficiencies of air pollution control devices (APCDs). A total of 59 VOC species were identified in the flue gas, including 5 alkanes/alkenes, 14 aromatics, 8 oxygenated-VOCs, and 32 halogenated hydrocarbons. The activated carbon injection combined with fabric filters and wet desulfurization tower demonstrated varying removal efficiencies across VOC groups, with synergistic removal efficiencies being ranked as follows: alkanes/alkenes (90.9%) > aromatics (87.0%) > halogenated hydrocarbons (61.3%) > O-VOCs (42.2%). The total VOC removal efficiency reached 77.5%. The VOCs emission factor of the MWI plant was calculated as (1.9 ± 0.6) × 103 ng/g-waste, which would rise to (8.4 ± 2.1) × 103 ng/g-waste in the absence of APCDs. This indicates that the current APCD system reduces VOC emissions by approximately 6.52 × 104 g annually from this MWI plant, highlighting the crucial role of multistage APCDs in mitigating VOC pollution.