ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of waste treatment. It provides physical processes, usually the simplest and least expensive to perform. The chapter addresses chemical processes followed by thermal, then biological approaches to waste treatment. It summarizes chemical reactions of various types are used for the treatment and destruction of hazardous wastes. The chemical behavior of wastes translates to various unit operations for waste treatment that are based upon chemical properties and reactions. These include the following: acid/base neutralization, chemical precipitation, chemical flocculation, oxidation, reduction, chemical extraction and leaching, and ion exchange. The chapter also provides biological treatment of hazardous wastes. In an ideal system of industrial ecology, waste treatment would be irrelevant because there would be no wastes. Knowledge of the physical behavior of wastes has been used to develop various unit operations for waste treatment that are based upon physical properties. These operations include the following: phase separation, phase transition, phase transfer, and membrane separations.
