Improving the quality of fuels derived from wastes

European experience in using fuel obtained from recycled waste (refuse-derived fuel, RDF) in the cement industry is described. The use of RDF becomes possible and economically viable if such fuel is not inferior to traditional fuel in quality. Modern automatic sorting technologies allow the removal of fractions containing unwanted compounds from the stream of solid municipal wastes (SMW). Among them, special attention should be paid to chlorine compounds and online monitoring of the quality of the RDF fed for combustion. Colossal and stable growth in the volume of produced SMW makes them a valuable source of thermal energy. The use of RDF can reduce production costs of the cement industry, a large part of which is related to the purchase of fuel

Author: J. Ratmann

Section: Waste utilization

Keywords: refuse-derived fuel, automatic sorting, municipal solid waste