Analysis of Inorganic Pollutants Emitted By the City of Paris Garbage Incineration Plants

Abstract

The City of Paris has to eliminate 2 million tons of household garbage each year, mainly by incineration with heat recovery, and while doing so wishes to participate fully in the international struggle against acid rain and heavy metal pollution. The City has decided to determine precisely the atmospheric effluent emanating from present industrial plants, and to this effect a comprehensive monitoring campaign was undertaken. The analysis, unique in France because of the exhaustive nature and size of the facilities deployed for the purpose, covered many parameters. The results are that (1) the HC 1 gas concentration in smoke, about 1000 mg m-3, contributing almost one-half of the fallout, was observed at a rate of 10 μg m -3 at 5 km from the plant; and (2) the total heavy metals concentration in a modern plant is about 4 mg m-3 but, excluding Zn, less than 2 mg m-3. Analyses are given for each components Pb, Cd, Zn, Cr, Cu, Ni, Ba, Co, Ag and Hg.