Comparison of the Methods for Chlorine Determination in Municipal Waste

Nobuhisa Watanabe*1, Noboru Tanigawa*2, Chiaki Ishikawa*3, Minoru Yamamoto*4, Hiromu Mae*5, Akiyoshi Shinohara*6, Tsutomu Matsue*7, Shigeo Sato*8, Tomo Oikawa*2 and Kiyoshi Kawamura*9
* Osaka City Institute of Public Health and Environmental Sciences
*2 Tokyo Metropolitan Research Institute for Environmental Protection, Laboratory of Waste Management
*3 Sendai City Environmental Bureau
*4 Yokohama City, Public Cleansing Project Bureau, Facilities Dept., Office for Development of Waste Reclamation
*5 Osaka Chemical Analysis Centre Corporation Ltd.
*6 Taiheiyo Cement Corporation, Central Reserch Labolatory, Sakura
*7 Shimadzu Techno-Reseach Inc., Analytical section
*8 Nippon Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
*9 Center for Environmental Science in Saitama
+ Correspondence should be addressed to Nobuhisa Watanabe:
(8-34, Tohjoh-cho, Ten-no-jiku, Osaka, 543-0026, Japan)

Abstract
Determination method of chlorine (Cl) in municipal waste was discussed. Three different methods were presented. quartz tube combustion, bomb combustion and crucible combustion. Analytical results of the quartz tube combustion method were lower than those of bomb and crucible combustion methods. The reason is thought to be the effect of coexisting alkaline (earth) metals such as Na, Mg, Ca and K. Generated chlorides of those metals remained in the quartz vessel or adsorbed the inner surface of the quartz tube, both of which would not be recovered. However, the quartz tube combustion method is able to determine HCl generation through combustion, therefore, it is effective to measure volatile (combustible) chlorine.

Key words: chlorine, municipal waste, bomb combustion, quartz furnace combustion, Eschka method