River Shannon Recycling Phone: 847-581-2890 |
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River Shannon Recycling Technologies
Technical overview of mercury vapor extraction and product recycling Dangers of mercury vapor in the work place coupled with state and federal regulatory mandates pertaining to banning mercury containing lamps in landfills are the driver's behind the following technical innovation pertaining to recycling spent mercury containing lamps. This patent pending technology has recently been granted a provisional patent by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In October of 2003, Mercury Vapor Processing Technologies (MVP) applied for and received a series of provisional patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a process to safely recycle mercury containing lamps utilizing its mobile technology. River Shannon Recycling (RSR) acquired the rights to use this patented method of recycling mercury containing lamps along with other regulated “Universal Waste” streams from MVP after extensive due diligence was performed on this method and other similar methods currently in use around the United States. This method of recycling mercury containing lamps was deemed to be the “Best Available Technology”, most economical and by far the safest way of addressing both federal and state mandated regulations known as the “Universal Waste Rule.” The process is conducted by a single 40 hour OSHA trained environmental technician who has the ability of processing up to 6,000 mercury-containing lamps an hour. During the process the technician feeds the system from outside the cavity of the processing unit and never touches the material again until the unit has stored 20,000 (less than 5,000 kg) non-hazardous processed lamps on board and the mercury vapor has been locked up in an activated carbon filter in the form of a mercury (salt) sulfate. The mercury vapor processing unit is fed by hydraulic elevators that introduces and crushes spent lamps under a vacuum air principle that moves the mercury vapor over an activated carbon filter media which immediately captures the mercury vapor in the form of a mercury sulfate. The media has been widely used in Commerce and Industry for over twenty (20) years and testing of this media has consistently demonstrated no toxic characteristics (TCLP Mercury) either in water or acid. During the course of processing negative air is generated by onboard blowers/fans creating airflow in one direction. The airflow is aimed at moving mercury vapor through a redundant carbon filter thus eliminating the possibility of mercury emissions during the course of processing spent lamps. When spent mercury lamps are loaded on the hydraulic elevators and the elevators are activated a door at the head of the processing chamber automatically opens and simultaneously with the movement of the elevators. After the spent lamps have been loaded the elevator returns to its loading position and the chamber doors close in preparation for the vapor extraction. After the materials are safely in place the hydraulic ram slowly compresses the lamps allowing for the controlled movement of mercury vapor to pass over the activated carbon filters thus allowing the carbon to adsorb the mercury vapor forming a non-hazardous mercury sulfate. After the process has taken place and the extraction of mercury vapor has been completed, the now non-hazardous re-useable glass and aluminum by-products are automatically stored onboard the processing unit and downloaded at the end of the working day for subsequent reuse back into commerce and industry. The unit can store up to 20,000 non-hazardous processed fluorescent lamps before downloading (below 5,000 kg) A complete copy of RSR's Health & Safety Plan is available for review upon request. If you need further information about our company or have specific questions pertaining to the process please call 847-581-2890 or Toll Free at 1-877-SPENTLITES. |