In view of the restrictive environmental protection and shrinking landfill capacities in Western Europe,
the controlled incineration of industrial and municipal waste in conceived plants points out a chance to
take care of natural resources. Such plants include subsequent units to treat the – probably catalytically
oxidized – hot flue gases. Counter current scrubbers using water or caustic soda solution free the
cooled flue gases from hazardous compounds.
The simultaneous demand of an acidic atmosphere and a circulating alkaline brine to the whole
construction requires a careful material selection, which today is efficiently solved by choosing a
combination of a thermoplastic material serving as so-called chemical barrier and a load-bearing
structure made from glass-fiber reinforced plastic (FRP). Thanks to its cost-performance ratio
polypropylene plays a significant part amongst thermoplastic materials.
Today different polypropylene grades for sheet material in combination with different fabric backings
protect the FRP-structure from heavy alkaline and acidic attack downstream of the quenching step of
waste incineration plants.
Keywords: acidic, alkaline, caustic, FRP, GF-UP, HCl, HF, HNO3, incineration, MWI, NaOH,
polypropylene, PP-H, PP-B, processing, SO2, SO3, thermoplastic, welding