Incineration of Ion Exchange Resins Using Concentric Burners

A new incineration method, using concentric burners, is studied to reduce the volume of spent ion exchange resins generated from nuclear power plants. Resins are ejected into the center of a propane-oxygen flame and burned within it. The flame length is theoretically evaluated by the diffusion-dominant model. By reforming the burner shape, flame length can be reduced by one-half. The decomposition ratio decreases with larger resin diameters due to the loss of unburned resin from the flame. A flame guide tube is adapted to increase resin holding time in the flame, which improves the decomposition ratio to over 98 wt%.