Microwave Treatment of Emissions from Waste Materials

A microwave off-gas system has been designed and fabricated to destroy or decompose emissions that arise from microwave treatment of printed circuit boards (PCBs). Preliminary gas chromatography data on emissions that resulted from combustion of PCBs showed significant decreases in the concentration and number of hazardous compounds detected in the off-gases after treatment. Investigations have continued in this area to demonstrate the reproducibility of the initial results and to determine critical control parameters for optimization of the system. The results of these studies are presented.