ABSTRACT
As with all environmental pollutants, such chemical wastes eventually reach a state of physical and chemical stability and equilibrium with the environment, although it may take many centuries to occur. Waste treatment may occur at three major levels: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Knowledge of the physical behavior of wastes has been used to develop various unit operations for waste treatment that are based upon physical properties. Centrifugation is a process for separating solid and liquid components of a waste stream by rapidly rotating a mixture of solids and liquids inside a vessel. Thermal desorption is the process of heating a waste in a controlled environment thereby volatilizing any organic constituents. Waste preparation for liquid wastes may require filtration settling to remove solid material and water, blending to obtain the most appropriate mixture for incineration, or heating to decrease viscosity. Encapsulation, another perhaps more specific form of waste stabilization, is a method by which mixed wastes.
