Using Air Curtain Incinerators to Dispose of Pallets

In This Article:

1. The difficulty disposing of pallets
2. Air curtain destructors offer a solution
3. The practicality of air curtain incinerators and pallet disposal 

The Problem

Disposing of pallets can be difficult. Sometimes they can be reused, but that is not always the case. Many waste and recycling facilities don’t want to take them, and storing them is inconvenient because they are very bulky.

The Solution

Many have begun looking to burning to solve their backlog of pallets. Of course, this can raise environmental concerns, but there is a workaround. Air curtain incinerators have been used to burn pallets in a clean and safe way. Air Curtain Incinerators force air out of a narrow opening in a long tube, called the manifold, at high speeds. This creates a curtain of air that covers over and circulates through a fire. Inside the fire, temperatures can reach an average of 1800-2400 degrees Fahrenheit, so the fire is very efficient. At the end, debris volume should be reduced by 97%, leaving you with a very small amount of ash. Since pallets are so bulky and have so much space between their boards, this reduction is even more dramatic when compared to the total volume of space taken up by the pallets. This ash can easily be spread out on site, covered over in the pit, or even repurposed. 

Please note: Burning is not a suitable disposal method for pallets that have been glued together.

How practical is it?

Using an air curtain incinerator for pallet disposal has already been done numerous times and proven to be, not only practical, but advantageous. Air curtain incinerators can burn pallets very quickly- burning approximately 1500 pallets in just one day. That’s almost 8000 pallets in 1 work week (5 days) and over 30,000 in a month (4 work weeks)!