No abstract

No abstract

This paper describes the requirements for the production, quality, and quality assurance of solid recovered fuels (SRF) that are increasingly used in the cement industry. Different aspects have to be considered before using SRF as an alternative fuel. Here, a study on the quality of SRF used in the cement industry is presented. This overview is completed by an investigation of type and properties of input materials used at waste splitting and SRF production plants in Austria. As a simplified classification, SRF can be divided into two classes: a fine, high-calorific SRF for the main burner, or coarser SRF material with low calorific value for secondary firing systems, such as precombustion chambers or similar systems. In the present study, SRFs coming from various sources that fall under these two different waste fuel classes are discussed. Both SRFs are actually fired in the grey clinker kiln of the Holcim (Slovensko) plant in Rohožnik (Slovakia). The fine premium-quality material is used in the main burner and the coarse regular-quality material is fed to a FLS Hotdisc combustion device. In general, the alternative fuels are used instead of their substituted fossil fuels. For this, chemical compositions and other properties of SRF were compared to hard coal as one of the most common conventional fuels in Europe. This approach allows to compare the heavy metal input from traditional and alternative fuels and to comment on the legal requirements on SRF that, at the moment, are under development in Europe.

Since the need for raw materials in countries undergoing industrialisation (like China) is rising, the availability of metal and fossil fuel energy resources (like ores or coal) has changed in recent years. Landfill sites can contain considerable amounts of recyclables and energy-recoverable materials, therefore, landfill mining is an option for exploiting dumped secondary raw materials, saving primary sources. For the purposes of this article, two sanitary landfill sites have been chosen for obtaining actual data to determine the resource potential of Austrian landfills. To evaluate how pretreating waste before disposal affects the resource potential of landfills, the first landfill site has been selected because it has received untreated waste, whereas mechanically-biologically treated waste was dumped in the second. The scope of this investigation comprised: (1) waste characterisation by sorting analyses of recovered waste; and (2) chemical analyses of specific waste fractions for quality assessment regarding potential energy recovery by using it as solid recovered fuels. The content of eight heavy metals and the net calorific values were determined for the chemical characterisation tests.

No abstract