RE: Terms used in incineration

[Alan Muller <amuller@dca.net>]

At 03:38 PM 9/17/99 -0400, Ede, Sharon  (DEHAA) wrote:
>Hi, I am an Environmental Planner with the South Australian Environment
>Protection Agency, and I am new to this list. 
>
>There is currently a proposal for a magnesium smelter in a regional city in
>my state, which will use an electrolytic process, and I understand that this
>process has the potential to produce dioxin and other toxic by-products. 

Hello Sharon.  Magnesium is typically produced in metallic form by electrolysis of magnesium chloride, which of course also produces large amounts of chlorine gas.  (There do exist non-electrolytic processes for reduction of magnesium.)  I would think that to evaluate the impacts of a Mg facility one would have to look at the whole process.  What is the nature of the ore, and how will it be prepared?  What environmental impacts will be associated with the large electricity consumption of such a facility?  What will be the fate of the chlorine?  Not knowing these details, I can only suggest that your concern may be well justified.

am

(BTW, I do think that under some circumstances electrostatic precipitators can be associated with dioxin formation.  Have seen data suggesting this.)


Alan Muller, Executive Director
Green Delaware
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