Waste Gasification
For reasons that are mostly historical, emissions regulations for thermal treatment of waste are generally much more stringent than for, say, a coal-based power plant. Waste gasification plants, particularly slagging units, have the potential to provide a viable alternative to incineration. The current review in the United States on removing refinery wastes that are processed to syngas from the hazardous classification is, however, typical of the moving targets in this field. A number of plants, such as Schwarze Pumpe, provide a local or regional waste disposal center in which waste is gasified and the syngas used for production of methanol and electricity. Here the solid slag is nonleachable and meets the German municipal waste standards “Siedlungsabfall class 1” (Greil etal. 2002).