Review on Destruction Technology of Poh chlorinated Biphenyls in Transformers in Korea

摘要

This paper presents a brief review of the current status of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) treatments in Korea. There are approximately 1.6 million pole transformers in Korea, mainly in the Korea Electric Company, and 50,000-100,000 of those are disposed annually. Approximately 6,000-30,000 tons of used transformers must be treated safely each year. The chemical treatment of PCBs-contaminated transformer oil and the solvent cleaning of transformers started from the summer of 2009. Currently, 2,000 tons of used transformers are treated in Korea monthly, which costs approximately 3 billion Korean Won. Three commercially operating facilities perform both the chemical destruction of PCBs in transformer oil and cleaning of transformers. Two chemical destruction facilities of PCBs in Korea involve the dechlorination process of PCBs by a sodium dispersion process, with different dechlorination agents, such as metallic sodium. The final guideline of chemical destruction is < 2 ppm PCBs in the residual oil, as determined not by a conventional peak pattern method, but by a high resolution mass spectrometer. The facilities for cleaning PCBs-contaminated transformers generally utilize solvents, such as surfactants or hydrocarbons, to clean the outer case and inner core of the transformers.