Thermal treatments for the recovery of value added materials

The techniques able to incorporate wastes can be divided between cold and hot techniques. In the first group falls stabilization/solidification by both inorganic (cement, lime, clay) and organic (thermoplastic materials, macroencapsulating compounds, asphalts, polymers) reagents. The second group comprises vitrification, devitrification, and sintering. Thermal treatments, which might speed up by the use of electromagnetic irradiation, present the advantage to fix the residue with chemical bonds, changing the microstructure or morphology from hazardous to harmless.