Mechanism of formation of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins produced on municipal incinerator flyash from reactions of chlorinated phenols.

All incinerators burning municipal waste produce chlorinated dioxins. The mechanism by which these compounds are formed is unknown. Experiments were performed that show these compounds can be produced from known precursors by surface catalysed reactions on the flyash particulates present in the incineration process. A full range of the tetra- through octachlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins were produced from 13C-labelled pentachlorophenol and two trichlorophenols on the surface of flyash from an Ontario municipal incinerator that had been previously freed from organic material. A simple flow-tube apparatus at 300 degrees C under a 10-ml/min nitrogen flow was used for the experiments. The use of 13C-labelled pentachlorophenol gave a direct measure of the extent of the catalytic reactivity of the flyash surface. Much lower amounts of chlorinated dioxins were produced in similar experiments with flyash from a modern Japanese incinerator whose effluents are normally extremely low in these compounds. Only small amounts of octachlorodioxin, the thermal condensation product expected, were formed using ground firebrick or an empty flow-tube for the reactive surface. These results indicate that the flyash surface has constituents and properties that promote the production of chlorinated dioxins from chlorinated phenols and support the catalyzed surface reaction mechanism previously proposed.