Abstract As the world races toward its urban future, the quantity of wastes, one of the vital by-products of an enhancement in the standards of living, is exponentially rising. The treatment of wastes employing plasma is an upcoming area of research and is globally used for the simultaneous processing of diverse wastes coupled with the recovery of energy and materials. Ground-breaking and cost-effective thermal plasma technologies with high efficiencies are a prerequisite for the growth of this technology. This paper delivers an evaluation of the fundamentals such as the generation and characteristics of the thermal plasma along with the various types of wastes treatable by thermal plasma and the related issues. Furthermore, the authors discuss different types of advanced technologies as well as the material and energy recovery techniques and their present status worldwide, at lab-scale and industrial scale. The application of different thermal plasma technologies is discussed as a means to promote this technology into alternative applications, which require higher flexibility and greater efficiency. Mathematical modeling studies are also assessed with an objective to derive ideal conditions and permissible limits for the reactors and to test a variety of waste materials. A strategy to improve the feasibility and sustainability of waste utilization is via technological advancement and the minimization of environmental effects and process economics. This paper sheds light on diverse areas of waste utilization via thermal plasma as a potentially sustainable and environmentally friendly technology.

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热等离子体废物利用进展

摘要 随着世界向城市未来迈进，作为生活水平提高的重要副产品之一，废物的数量呈指数级增长。采用等离子体处理废物是一个即将到来的研究领域，在全球范围内用于同时处理各种废物以及能源和材料的回收。具有开创性和成本效益的高效率热等离子体技术是该技术发展的先决条件。本文评估了热等离子体的产生和特性等基本原理，以及热等离子体可处理的各种类型的废物和相关问题。此外，作者讨论了实验室规模和工业规模的不同类型的先进技术以及材料和能量回收技术及其在世界范围内的现状。讨论了不同热等离子体技术的应用，作为将该技术推广到需要更高灵活性和更高效率的替代应用中的一种手段。还评估了数学建模研究，目的是推导出理想的反应堆条件和允许限值，并测试各种废料。提高废物利用的可行性和可持续性的策略是通过技术进步和最小化环境影响和过程经济性。