Present practices in the storage of spent solvents activated carbon, heavy metals, and other hazardous waste, requiring pickup and disposal through industrial waste haulers, has resulted in serious political and environmental problems for both the chemical and electronic industry. Ground water contamination and occupational health problems have been steadily increasing. In addition, under the Federal RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) there are long term legal risks to the hazardous waste generator resulting from the ultimate fate of these materials, which is referred to as the "cradle-to-grave" responsibility of the generator. Only the largest producing companies can afford the costs of the large incineration furnaces capable of combusting these organic waste to EPA-acceptable levels. There exists a present need for new technology that is better matched to the scale of the problem and the capital available.
In addition to the foregoing, there have been developed many systems and/or reactors designed to "eliminate" waste from the world. Such systems normally operate upon the "garbage" of the world and some are even directed to the destruction of "garbage" having therein some chemical substances that could be detrimental to human health. Most "waste disposal systems" are directed to the incineration or other disposal of general waste products.
High temperature waste reactors are very large and expensive and incorporate limitations as to materials operated upon such as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,434 to Matovich and following patents of the same inventor. Other waste reactors are limited to a particular physical form of waste material, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,499,833. Cyclone incinerators, as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,855,951 are useful for burning trash or the like but do not provide for sufficiently complete combustion for use with hazardous waste. The present invention provides a relatively simple system that operates at a higher temperature for substantially complete decomposition of hazardous waste and may be economically installed at the site of waste production.