Recycling and Resource Recovery Engineering : Principles of Waste Processing

Solid waste is one of the newest fields to achieve recognition as a sub-discipline in environmental engineering. As such, one is hard-pressed to find thorough coverage of related topics in academic curricula. Many graduate programs in environmental engineering have one introductory course in waste control. A handful of texts, some excellent, exist to serve this need. Recent purported crises in solid waste management have forced the understanding that something beyond the traditional control methods may be appropriate. Resource recovery is the correct nomenclature for the longest- standing alternative approach seeking to extract materials from the waste stream for eventual re-use in one or another beneficial fashion. Several books have evolved, covering various approaches. Design approaches therein have borrowed heavily from other disciplines, ceasing where solid waste differs from the feeds to be processed. These books were oriented towards knowledgeable practitioners. This work attempts to present waste processing as a study in unit operations appropriate to university study at the graduate level. The study of unit operations is typical in environmental engineering. These unit operations are different. A variety of student backgrounds are suitable. However, a familiarity with the basics of waste control, such as would be gained from one of the introductory courses mentioned above, is assumed, as is a sound quantitative background. It is hoped that this work fills an empty niche. Contents 1 Waste as a Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 1 . . . . .