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Energy recovery from municipal solid waste (MSW) is currently a key factor in waste management in Russia, as can be seen from the corresponding changes in the state regulatory framework. The paper presents a comparative assessment of different waste flow characteristics; it focuses on pre-treatment options and the method of subsequent thermal treatment. It reflects the basic method of untreated MSW incineration and other advanced technologies which have different levels of waste preparation. Stepby-step research has been carried out in a large Russian city in order to determine different technological approaches to recovering energy from MSW. The study included: 1) field studies of the composition and characterization of MSW; 2) laboratory studies of MSW thermal properties, i.e. moisture, ash content and calorific value; 3) several options for waste treatment schemes with equipment of different technical specifications; 4) analysis of material flow, energy flow and key substance flow according to these considered schemes. The research revealed that for all seasons a significant proportion of MSW (almost 40%) is represented by fines (below 50 mm). On average, the energy potential of MSW (the total content of waste paper, polymers, textiles, wood, multilayer packaging, leather, rubber, footwear) amounts to about 40%. It was found that MSW calorific value depends on fraction size, since screening (over 50 mm) is characterized by high moisture and low content of valuable components, compared to MSW greater than 50 mm in size. Pre-processing and treatment of MSW allows solid recovered fuel (SRF) to be obtained with a calorific value similar to brown coal. The energy balance of the process allows the conclusion that 33.8% of initial MSW energy potential is concentrated in residues from the sorting process, since it has a relatively low calorific value of 4.8 MJ/kg, but a high mass fraction of 47.9%. In the process of MSW treatment and solid fuel production, most of the chlorine and mercury (80% and 55% respectively) is removed by the rest of the sorting process. The data obtained in the study can be used in selecting the optimal option for energy recovery from MSW.

The thermomechanics problem of how thermal loads affect the operation of the interface module of a fiber-optic gyroscope has been solved. This paper discusses the development of a structural implementation version for the interface module. The problem is numerically solved by the method of finite elements in the ANSYS package. It is shown that adding special inserts in the structure of the interface module makes it possible to substantially increase the thermal stability of the operation of the module.

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Efficient collection systems and information about the characteristics and quality of collected secondary plastic waste flows are of fundamental importance for the development of circular economies. In order to assess the effectiveness of the implementation of separate collection systems for plastic packaging, especially polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, characteristic of the collected PET bottles in street mesh containers were studied in the city of Perm, Russia. The share of extraneous fractions was assessed and differentiation was carried out by volume, type of product, label presence, shape, content of solid and liquid impurities and colour. These results indicate that PET composition in different seasons is very similar, despite the assumption that the consumption of PET bottles in the spring and autumn seasons varies. In the mesh containers, up to 34% of the items were foreign objects, considering that only PET bottles should be collected. In each dimensional flow of PET bottles, the proportion of transparent bottles prevailed; it ranged from 31% to 70%. Based on the results of the experiment, almost all PET bottle categories had a standard shape, except packaging for food products and household chemicals, in which 26–27% of PET bottles had a non-standard shape. The results about charactersitic of source-separated PET bottles are fundamental for goal-oriented design and implementation of collection, recycling technologies, secondary separation facilities, the economics of recycling intitatives and reverse vending machines for collecting materials.