Essay

Student Name Course Title Course Instructor Date Question 1 Incineration is termed as a thermal method of waste disposal which is applied in controlling the emission of volatile organic compounds especially in industries. This method involves burning the organic compounds in very high temperatures so that these compounds are converted into residue instead of being emitted to the environment as pollutants. The adsorption system for the control of volatile organic substances on the other hand is a method that uses absorbers such as carbon and zeolite which adsorbs the volatile compound within their inner surface to prevent them from reaching the environment as described by Opperman & Brown (2001). Moreover, the absorbers react chemically with the volatile organic substances hence they are able to hold the compounds more strongly to prevent them from being released to the atmosphere. Bio-filtration is a technology used to control emission of Volatile organic compounds by mineralizing the substances. According to Saxena & Samaddar (2010), bio-filters are used to control the release of harmful substances into the atmosphere. Each of these methods of VOC control has advantages and disadvantages as explained below. Incineration is a technology that is relatively safer using incinerators which are equipped with environmental controls to prevent release of harmful substances to the environment. Moreover, incineration reduces the volatile organic compounds by about 85% which is relatively advantageous since handling of the resultant residue is made easy. Incineration can be used to control all kinds of volatile organic compound thus it is not limited. On the other hand, Opperman & Brown (2001) explain that adsorption has the advantage of being cost effective as compared to the incineration of VOC. In addition, adsorption completely reacts with the compounds hence no emissions leaks to pollute the environment. Bio-filtration is an effective method of VOC control because it is a low temperature method that helps to prevent incurring of the high costs related to consumption of energy. The bio-filtration method is also environmentally friendly because only very small amounts of carbon dioxide are released to the atmosphere. Though incineration is described to be cheaper in the long term, a lot of electrical energy is used in burning the volatile organic compounds thus leading to high costs of controlling these substances. In addition, the incinerators usually produce toxic compounds that are harmful to health such as doxin which has been known to cause cancer. The disadvantage of using absorbers to control volatile organic compounds is that they may not be applicable with all VOCs because each absorber is specific to a certain substance which makes it a more complex method of safeguarding the environment from pollutants. As illustrated by Opperman & Brown (2001) adsorption is disadvantageous because some absorbers may not be able to control specific volatile organic compounds especially those which have low degradation and adsorption rates. Moreover, it is expensive to install the large bio-filtration systems which are required in industrial s...