PALM CITY, Fla., July 2, 2008 — On June 25, 2008 the EPA concluded its week long test in Louisiana for disaster debris reduction by means of air curtain burners or air curtain incinerators. Air Burners, LLC made available one of its largest above ground S-327 fireboxes. The goal was to compare the emissions data from the burning of vegetative waste for which the machines are traditionally used with debris from disaster demolished houses, such as those destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, in order to determine whether the machines should be used to dispose of such debris. Potentially toxic components, such as asbestos, were not included in the debris mix.
Disaster recovery planning must include the safe and economical disposal of debris. Air curtain burners have long been used to deal with vegetative debris, such as trees, but they were not extensively used to reduce debris from destroyed houses. The cost of disposing of this debris by hauling it to a landfill is extremely high. Burning it on site in an air curtain firebox would result in a quick return to normality for the affected residents and a significant cost savings to the taxpayer.
Last week's preliminary results confirmed that the mass reduction of vegetative waste is nearly 99% with no harmful emissions. The burning of a demolished house was equally efficient with little visible smoke. Extensive emissions samples were collected for analysis at the EPA laboratories and the results will be published in due course.
Air Burners, LLC of Palm City, Florida is the leading manufacturer of air curtain burners serving government agencies and the industries of construction, forestry and wood processing. Air curtain burners were designed solely as a pollution control device for open burning. Their sole purpose is to reduce or eliminate the Particulate Matter (smoke) that results from burning clean vegetative waste. These machines do not incinerate nor do they inject any fuels to support incineration. They develop a curtain of high velocity air over a fire that traps the smoke particles and causes them to re-burn. In simple words, a pile of wood waste burning would have a plume of smoke rising above it. If one could visualize that an air curtain firebox be lowered over the fire, it would be noticed that 95% of the smoke is eliminated. As an added benefit, the air curtain oxygenates the fire causing a more complete combustion which results in a 98% reduction in mass: 100 tons of waste will be reduced to less than one ton of ash which could be recycled into the soil. The debris disposal by means of air curtain burning is extremely cost-effective and expeditious as compared to other options that may include chipping, grinding and subsequent hauling to a landfill, most of which are already overburdened.
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Contact:
Norbert Fuhrmann
Air Burners, LLC
4390 Cargo Way
Palm City, FL 34990
772-220-7303
Email
http://www.airburners.com