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I realized recently that burning waste oil, plastic, coal, even plain wood, release (potentially) harmful SOx, NOx, and particulate matter (wiki)

That's why it's mandatory for incinerators / boiler-intensive industry operators in many countries to have the emission treated before releasing it to open air (wiki)

However, while the awareness have been around for centuries, yet i couldn't find one home/small-scale burner that does the job, either to burn family wastes, cooking, or for small industries

Tried already using various keyword in online global marketplace

Now i wonder, why?

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  • $\begingroup$ You would need a catalytic converter to reverse the NOx formation, perhaps an absorbent or acid/base neutralization chemistry (??) for SOx, and filtration or precipitation for particulates. The other big category is "VOC" pollutants - volatile organic molecules (eg bezene xylene etc), not sure how those are treated. Keeping each of these pollutants from fouling the treatment stages targeting the other pollutants would be a bit of a struggle. Hard to justify that cost for something like a wood stove. $\endgroup$
    – Pete W
    Commented Dec 29, 2021 at 4:04
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    $\begingroup$ @Pete W why don't you just change your comment to an answer? $\endgroup$
    – kamran
    Commented Dec 29, 2021 at 5:51
  • $\begingroup$ The simple answer is cost - initial and year-round maintenance. Also, the altitude of the releasing point can be a concern too. $\endgroup$
    – r13
    Commented Dec 29, 2021 at 18:03

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To summarize: To get the cleanest possible combustion of fuels like garbage, you need the highest possible combustion temperature and the smallest possible particles of fuel to burn, which contains no non-combustibles like metal and glass. Thus you need to significantly pre-process the waste feedstock and construct a specially-designed burner system, both of which cost money.

After combustion, you then have to remove the particulate ash and the various gaseous oxides that are produced in high-temperature combustion from the exhaust gas stream. The oxides can be trapped in a scrubber, which reacts chemically with those gases to pull them out, and the particulates can be trapped in a baghouse/centrifugator combination. Now you have to keep the stack gas scrubber charged with the extractive chemical(s) and disposition the solid dust in some manner (usually by trucking it to a hazmat disposal site).

The costs associated with making the combustion "clean" drive the construction and operation cost of an incinerator, and those costs can be managed only by inventing new breakthrough technology or by scaling the system up. Scaling it down so it will fit in your backyard makes those costs worse.

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  • $\begingroup$ Way beyond the mental capacity of the general public. For example ; Cook Co ( Chicago) sanitary district burned garbage ( do not know if they still do). It required burning under pressure ( closed vessel) , bottom line it was complicated enough they got a copyright or patent. $\endgroup$
    – blacksmith37
    Commented Dec 29, 2021 at 19:25

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