U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, Department of Systems and Engineering Management, 2950 Hobson Way, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio 45433, USA.
Environ Sci Technol. 2012 Oct 16;46(20):10997-1003. doi: 10.1021/es3021556. Epub 2012 Sep 19.
U.S. military forces have historically relied on open burning as an expedient method of volume reduction and treatment of solid waste during the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. This study is the first effort to characterize a broad range of pollutants and their emission factors during the burning of military waste and the effects that recycling efforts, namely removing plastics, might have on emissions. Piles of simulated military waste were constructed, burned, and emissions sampled at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Open Burn Testing Facility (OBTF), Research Triangle Park, NC. Three tests contained polyethylene terephthalate (PET #1 or PET) plastic water bottles and four did not. Emission factors for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), particulate matter (PM(10), PM(2.5)), polychlorinated and polybrominated dioxins/furans (PCDD/F and PBDD/F), and criteria pollutants were determined and are contained within. The average PCDD/F emission factors were 270 ng-toxic equivalency (TEQ) per kg carbon burned (ng-TEQ/kg Cb), ranging from 35 to 780 ng-TEQ/kg Cb. Limited testing suggests that targeted removal of plastic water bottles has no apparent effect on reducing pollutants and may even promote increased emissions.
美国军事力量在阿富汗和伊拉克冲突期间，一直依赖露天焚烧作为一种减少体积和处理固体废物的权宜之计。本研究首次对军事废物焚烧过程中广泛的污染物及其排放因子进行了特征描述，以及回收利用（例如去除塑料）对排放的影响。在北卡罗来纳州三角研究园的美国环境保护署（EPA）露天焚烧测试设施（OBTF）中，构建、焚烧并采样了模拟军事废物堆。三个测试中含有聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET #1 或 PET）塑料水瓶，而另外四个测试中则不含。多环芳烃（PAHs）、挥发性有机化合物（VOCs）、颗粒物（PM(10)、PM(2.5)）、多氯和多溴二恶英/呋喃（PCDD/F 和 PBDD/F）以及污染物标准的排放因子已经确定并包含在其中。PCDD/F 的平均排放因子为每燃烧 1 千克碳 270 纳克毒性等效（ng-TEQ）（ng-TEQ/kg Cb），范围从 35 到 780 ng-TEQ/kg Cb。有限的测试表明，有针对性地去除塑料水瓶对减少污染物没有明显影响，甚至可能会促进排放增加。
