US EPA Site Final Minergy Innovative Technology Evaluation Report (February 5, 2004)
The Glass Furnace Technology (GFT) treatment process was developed by Minergy Corporation (Minergy) as an ex situ remediation technology to treat river sediment contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), other organic compounds, and metals. An evaluation of the technology was conductedby the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation(SITE) Program. The demonstration of the GFT, which consisted of a drying process and a melting process, was completed at the Hazen Research, Inc. (Hazen) facility in Golden Colorado, and Minergy’s GlassPack Test Center facility in Winneconne, Wisconsin. According to the vendor, Minergy, the GFT process was designed to treat contaminated river sediment and is intended for use at any location where dredging and remediation of sediment is prescribed. Although site-specific background data are not relevant to the SITE demonstration, the technology evaluation was conducted on river sediment dredged from the Lower Fox River in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The purpose of this Innovative Technology Evaluation Report is to present information that will assist Superfund decision-makers in evaluating the GFT for application to hazardous waste site cleanups associated with contaminated river sediment. This executive summary describes the GFT, provides an overview of the SITE evaluation of the technology, discusses evaluation criteria for the GFT, and summarizes SITE evaluation results.
Glass Furnace Technology The GFT process was developed and configured for this SITE demonstration by Minergy. The demonstration process consisted of two basic steps: sediment drying and dried-sediment vitrification. According to the vendor, a full-scale GFT project will integrate drying and melting operations in a single facility. Both processes were evaluated independently for the SITE demonstration. The dryer evaluation was conducted in Golden, Colorado in January 2001, and the melter evaluation was completed in Winneconne, Wisconsin in August 2001. The GFT process was designed as an alternative treatment to landfilling for river sediment impacted by PCBs, other organics, and metals. Dewatered sediment is dried, flux is added to control melting temperatures and improve the physical properties of the glass aggregate product, and then the sediment and flux mixture melted at a temperature of about 1,600 degrees Celsius (NC) (2,900 degrees Fahrenheit NF]), removing or destroying PCBs and organic contaminants, and encapsulating metals. The treated ES-2 product consists of black glass aggregate with particles the size of coarse sand. Minergy claims the glass aggregate meets state regulatory criteria for beneficial reuse. For clarification, this document refers to the indirect heat disc or paddle dryer as the dryer and the pilot-scale melter portion of the GFT as the melter.
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