Refuse derived fuel

Municipal solid waste generation is a rapidly increasing challenge that is leading to severe pollution and environmental degradation in many urban areas of developing countries. Globally, the solid waste sector accounts for 18% of methane emissions and 3e4% of greenhouse gas emissions overall. Waste handling and disposal systems in most large cities have largely been designed with minimal accounting of environmental issues. This study presents the Waste to Energy Recovery Assessment (WERA) framework, a new quantitative decision support model for initial evaluation and alternative comparisons of different thermochemical treatments of municipal wastes. The framework not only accounts for benefits through electricity generation but also accounts for emissions from facilities and the associated social cost of carbon in a cost-benefit assessment. The assessments are conducted with Monte Carlo simulations that explicitly account for uncertain factors such as future composition and generation of solid waste, technical efficiency of treatment processes, capital and operating costs, as well as future policies. The framework is used to study waste-to-energy (WtE) systems for Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Tokyo and New York. The results show that WtE systems can fulfill only 1.4e3.6% of 2014 electricity demand in the analyzed cases. Furthermore, the net present value for different technologies can be positive if collection fees and electricity rates (potentially set through feed-in-tariff policies) are sufficiently high. The analysis for Abu Dhabi and Riyadh also reveals that in a limited set of conditions (of technology efficiencies, and waste collection rates etc.) the WtE facilities can be self-sustaining investments.

The aim of this work is to present the structure and the application of a decision support system (DSS) designed to help decision makers of a municipality in the development of incineration, disposal, treatment and recycling integrated programs. Specifically, within a MSW management system, several treatment plants and facilities can generally be found: separators, plants for production of refuse derived fuel (RDF), incinerators with energy recovery, plants for treatment of organic material, and sanitary landfills. The main goal of the DSS is to plan the MSW management, defining the refuse flows that have to be sent to recycling or to different treatment or disposal plants, and suggesting the optimal number, the kinds, and the localization of the plants that have to be active. The DSS is based on a decision model that requires the solution of a constrained non-linear optimization problem, where some decision variables are binary and other ones are continuous. The objective function ...

The paper presents the use of Solid Recovered Fuels (SRF) in Chelm Cement Plant (Poland). These types of fuels are produced from non-hazardous waste and can be used for energy recovery in waste co-combustion plants.
They are much cheaper compared to primary fuels, so their use in the process of cement clinker burning brings evident economic benefits. Chelm cement plant owned by the CEMEX company is a leader in the use of alternative fuels in Poland. In the years 2005-2011 the amount of co-combustion of alternative fuels in the cement had risen from 107 to 318 thousand tons, and their share in the cement kiln heat balance reached in 2011 the level of 73.5%. This increase did not result in increase of pollutant emissions to the air.
English title: The use of solid recovered fuels (SRF) from waste - case study of fuel co-combustion installation in Chełm cement plant.

This report proposes a waste disposal system which includes integrated informal recycling, small scale biomethanation, MBT and RDF/WTE.
Informal recycling can be integrated into the formal system by training and employing waste pickers to conduct door-to-door collection of wastes, and by allowing them to sell the recyclables they collected. Waste pickers should also be employed at material recovery facilities (or MRFs) to increase the percentage of recycling. Single households, restaurants, food courts and other sources of separated organic waste should be encouraged to employ small scale biomethanation and use the biogas for cooking purposes. Use of compost product from mixed wastes for agriculture should be regulated. It should be used for gardening purposes only or as landfill cover. Rejects from the composting facility should be combusted in a waste-to-energy facility to recover energy. Ash from WTE facilities should be used to make bricks or should be contained in a sanitary landfill facility.
Such a system will divert 93.5% of MSW from landfilling, and increase the life span of a landfill from 20 years to 300 years. It will also decrease disease, improve the quality of life of urban Indians, and avoid environmental pollution.

Diversion of waste streams such as plastics, woods, papers and other solid trash from municipal landfills
and extraction of useful materials from landfills is an area of increasing interest especially in densely
populated areas. One promising technology for recycling municipal solid waste (MSW) is to burn the
high-energy-content components in standard coal power plant. This research aims to reform wastes into
briquettes that are compatible with typical coal combustion processes. In order to comply with the standards
of coal-fired power plants, the feedstock must be mechanically robust, free of hazardous contaminants,
and moisture resistant, while retaining high fuel value. This study aims to investigate the effects of
processing conditions and added recyclable plastics on the properties of MSW solid fuels. A well-sorted
waste stream high in paper and fiber content was combined with controlled levels of recyclable plastics
PE, PP, PET and PS and formed into briquettes using a compression molding technique. The effect of added
plastics and moisture content on binding attraction and energy efficiency were investigated. The stability
of the briquettes to moisture exposure, the fuel composition by proximate analysis, briquette mechanical
strength, and burning efficiency were evaluated. It was found that high processing temperature ensures
better properties of the product addition of milled mixed plastic waste leads to better encapsulation as
well as to greater calorific value. Also some moisture removal (but not complete) improves the compacting
process and results in higher heating value. Analysis of the post-processing water uptake and compressive
strength showed a correlation between density and stability to both mechanical stress and
humid environment. Proximate analysis indicated heating values comparable to coal. The results showed
that mechanical and moisture uptake stability were improved when the moisture and air contents were
optimized. Moreover, the briquette sample composition was similar to biomass fuels but had significant
advantages due to addition of waste plastics that have high energy content compared to other waste
types. Addition of PP and HDPE presented better benefits than addition of PET due to lower softening
temperature and lower oxygen content. It should be noted that while harmful emissions such as dioxins,
furans and mercury can result from burning plastics, WTE facilities have been able to control these emissions
to meet US EPA standards. This research provides a drop-in coal replacement that reduces demand
on landfill space and replaces a significant fraction of fossil-derived fuel with a renewable alternative.

The chapter presents the results of analyses concerning the impact of using alternative fuels in one of the Polish cement plants on the volume of continuously measured emissions into the air for the following substances: carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitric oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2), hydrogen chloride (HCl), gaseous and volatile organic compounds expressed as total organic carbon (TOC), and total dust. The analyses covered a 15-month period of the operation of a dry cement kiln, approximately 100m-long, equipped with four-stage cyclone exchangers and a calciner, constituting an additional chamber for waste co-combustion. The results obtained confirmed the lack of a significant impact of the volume of combusted alternative fuels on the emissions of examined air pollutants. In particular, the lack of linear correlations between the amounts of chlorine and sulphur brought in with alternative fuels and the amounts of HCl and SO2 emissions was observed.

Dwindling fossil fuels and improper waste management are major challenges in the context of increasing population and industrialization, calling for new waste-to-energy sources. For instance, refuse-derived fuels can be produced from transformation of municipal solid waste, which is forecasted to reach 2.6 billion metric tonnes in 2030. Gasification is a thermalinduced chemical reaction that produces gaseous fuel such as hydrogen and syngas. Here, we review refuse-derived fuel gasification with focus on practices in various countries, recent progress in gasification, gasification modelling and economic analysis. We found that some countries that replace coal by refuse-derived fuel reduce CO 2 emission by 40%, and decrease the amount municipal solid waste being sent to landfill by more than 50%. The production cost of energy via refuse-derived fuel gasification is estimated at 0.05 USD/kWh. Co-gasification by using two feedstocks appears more beneficial over conventional gasification in terms of minimum tar formation and improved process efficiency.

Αντικείμενο της παρούσας εργασίας είναι η κριτική θεώρηση και ανάλυση της μεθόδου της συναποτέφρωσης του RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel - στερεό καύσιμο παραγόμενο από απόβλητα) στην τσιμεντοβιομηχανία. Πρόκειται για μια μέθοδο που εντάσσεται στον Εθνικό Σχεδιασμό της Ελλάδας για τη Διαχείριση των Στερεών Αποβλήτων αλλά ακόμη δεν έχει εφαρμοστεί παρ' όλο το ενδιαφέρον που έχει ήδη εκδηλωθεί από κάποιες τσιμεντοβιομηχανίες. Για την εξέταση του ζητήματος, επελέγη ως μελέτη περίπτωσης το παραγόμενο RDF από το εργοστάσιο μηχανικής ανακύκλωσης και κομποστοποίησης στα Άνω Λιόσια και το εργοστάσιο τσιμέντου του ομίλου ΑΓΕΤ ΗΡΑΚΛΗΣ στο Μυλάκι Αλιβερίου στην Εύβοια. Με τη Μέθοδο της ανάλυσης κύκλου ζωής θα προσεγγιστεί το πρόβλημα τόσο από την τεχνικο-οικονομική του διάσταση όσο και από την περιβαλλοντική.

Dwindling fossil fuels and improper waste management are major challenges in the context of increasing population and industrialization, calling for new waste-to-energy sources. For instance, refuse-derived fuels can be produced from transformation of municipal solid waste, which is forecasted to reach 2.6 billion metric tonnes in 2030. Gasification is a thermalinduced chemical reaction that produces gaseous fuel such as hydrogen and syngas. Here, we review refuse-derived fuel gasification with focus on practices in various countries, recent progress in gasification, gasification modelling and economic analysis. We found that some countries that replace coal by refuse-derived fuel reduce CO 2 emission by 40%, and decrease the amount municipal solid waste being sent to landfill by more than 50%. The production cost of energy via refuse-derived fuel gasification is estimated at 0.05 USD/kWh. Co-gasification by using two feedstocks appears more beneficial over conventional gasification...