The Chemical Industry has always had the challenge of disposing chemical wastes, byproducts, and residuals by legal, safe and economically effective means. Traditionally, the primary disposal methods have been landfill, deep well injection, and incineration. These methods, formerly thought to be safe and permanent, have often proven otherwise as leaching, groundwater contamination and a variety of other problems were discovered. Many Superfund sites met every environmental regulation at the time they were in use.

It can be said that the future of incineration is limited as emissions standards continue to tighten. Due to the economies of scale, it can be difficult for some incinerators to justify the high capital cost of installing appropriate emission controls. As a result, incineration capacity continues to fall, and conventional wisdom suggests that no significant new hazardous waste incineration capacity will be built. Worldwide, existing hazardous waste landfills are reaching capacity and permitting new landfills has become difficult, very time consuming, and in many jurisdictions, practically impossible. Transportation costs of such wastes continue to rise and there is regulatory, environmental, and public pressure to reduce the movement of such materials. In addition, responsible chemical companies themselves have set goals to reduce their carbon footprint and have established internal sustainability goals which drive them to reduce the wastes produced in every process and to recycle as much material as possible.

The PEM™ is commercially available today to address all of these issues. PEM™ technology takes chemical residuals as feedstock and converts them into useful products which can be returned to chemical companies or sold into the market place. InEnTec Chemical provides a cost competitive solution for materials previously handled as hazardous waste.