Treading the proving ground.

• Author: Murray, Marjorie
• Position: Use of bioremediation and incinerators for dispose hazardous wastes disposal in Alaska

Two technologies -- bioremediation and a new incineration method -- may help Alaska business deal with hazardous waste in the near future. Their costs and effectiveness are not yet known, however.

Scientists at the University of California at Los Angeles' Center for Clean Technology have designed an incinerator small enough to fit on the back of a pickup truck and capable of destroying liquid hazardous waste in three-tenths of a second. The unit uses combustion techniques similar to those that drive a jet engine.

"More than 90 percent of the hazardous waste now generated in the United States is in liquid form," says Ann Karagozian, one of the project's two inventors. "One of our main goals was to design an incinerator that could go to the generator, instead of having him transport the waste on public roads."

Karagozian and her colleague, Owen Smith, see their mobile incinerator being used by small-quantity generators such as dry cleaners, auto repair outlets and print shops. "A long-sought goal of scientists has been the development of low-cost yet reliable incinerators that would visit generators like garbage trucks do and get rid of waste cost-effectively," says Smith. Alaska currently has only a few low-temperature incinerators in the state, used primarily to burn soil contaminated with petroleum products.

Large incinerators are expensive to build, require a lot of energy to fuel them, and unlike the UCLA unit, rely on long residence times -- the time the waste is in the combustion chamber -- to ensure destruction of the hazardous material. A lengthy residence time increases the risk that the byproducts of incineration, including air emissions and ash, also may be toxic. These uncertain health effects have fueled powerful public political opposition to siting incinerators in the Lower 48.

Karagozian and Smith believe their small, mobile incinerator, which achieves almost total destruction of the waste, can defuse political opposition, should it arise.

The cost of building and operating one of the UCLA units is still unknown, however. "We're one or two years away from a commercial prototype, although one California company has built a model based on some of our work," says Karagozian.

Business leaders also are watching several bioremediation...