Clean Air, Vol. 7, pp. 1–16, 2006 Copyright 2006 by Begell House, Inc. OPTIMIZATION [M1] OF THE OXIDIZER REPARTITION IN ORDER TO REDUCE THE NO EMISSIONS IN MUNICIPAL WASTE INCINERATION ROGAUME T., 1* KOULIDIATI J., 2 RICHARD F., 1 JABOUILLE F., 1 and TORERO J.L. 3 1 Laboratoire de Combustion et de Détonique, Futuroscope, France 2 Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l’Environnement, Université de Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 3 School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom An experimental study has been conducted with a fixed-bed reactor to simulate, on a laboratory scale, industrial municipal waste incineration. The observation of the combustion regimes established has served to show the impact of the operating conditions on the yields of nitrogen oxide. Two dif- ferent regimes have been identified, controlled by the airflow rate through the fuel. The present ex- perimental results show that the production of NO seems to be controlled only by the oxygen concentration in the secondary zone of combustion. An increase in total air-flow rate, thus, results in an increase in the yield of NO. Keywords: Incineration; solid municipal waste; NOx, excess air INTRODUCTION Urban waste management is an increasingly difficult process. Materials being dis- carded are more regularly of complex composition, and the quantity of waste pro- duced is growing monotonically[M2]. It is clear that landfills cannot be used endlessly to store urban waste; therefore, the consistent development of conver- sion techniques is necessary. Incineration is one of the most commonly employed techniques in Europe, mainly because it can permit a reduction of 70% of the mass and 90% of the volume of the waste, but also because the calorific output of European waste is consistent with power generation schemes. However, the biggest challenge remains in the generation of pollution during the incineration of * Address all correspondence to T. Rogaume, trogaume@lcd.ensma.fr 1