SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING THE LEVEL OF POTENTIAL POLLUTANTS IN A WASTE TREATMENT PLANT

摘要

The invention relates to on-line sorting of waste matter. Known processing waste plants may produce excessive pollutants depending on the level of specific chemicals in the treated materials. To solve this problem a control volume of waste is introduced into a pulsed neutron material analyzer that determines the content of the specific chemical therein. A computer then decides whether the level of the chemical in the waste control volume is above or below a preset threshold, and accordingly channels the waste into one or another of two channels. One of these channels accepts waste with low content of the given chemical, for introduction into a waste processing chamber. The other channel stores the waste until it may be mixed with other waste having a sufficient low content such that the overall amount of the chemical is still below the threshold value.