DETERMINING THE CLIMATE RELEVANCE OF REFUSE-DERIVED FUELS – VALIDITY OF LITERATURE-DERIVED VALUES IN COMPARISON TO ANALYSIS-DERIVED VALUES

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• Available online in Detritus - Volume 02 / June 2018
• Pages 120-132

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Abstract

The adapted Balance Method (aBM) represents a cost efficient method for determining the fossil share in solid refuse-derived fuels (RDF). The method requires data on the elemental composition of the RDF on water-and-ash-free basis (TOX_RDF) and on the elemental composition of biogenic and fossil organic matter on water-and-ash-free basis present in the RDF (TOX_Bio and TOX_Fos). TOX_Bio and TOX_Fos generally need to be defined only once (e.g., before a routine application). After these data are known, only TOX_RDF needs to be determined analytically for any RDF sample in order to apply the aBM. As TOX_Bio and TOX_Fos are crucial input parameter for the aBM, the presented paper aims to assess the most suitable and practical way for their reliable determination. Within this study, 6 different solid RDFs are investigated and the aBM is applied, whereby the suitability of literature values is compared to own analysis data for TOX_Bio and TOX_Fos. The potential utilization of literature data could save the initial workload when applying the aBM and could make the method even more economical and practical compared to other methods. Altogether, seven aBM results are compared utilizing seven different methods for generating input values of TOX_Bio and TOX_Fos: using generic values, literature values only, analyses results only, or combinations of literature and analyses data. The study results suggest that the usage of analysis data together with information from literature is the best option to derive reliable input data (TOX_Bio and TOX_Fos) for the aBM (mean deviation from standardized methods of below 2%). The findings further suggest that there is a typical composition of the biogenic and fossil organic matter present in RDFs produced out of commercial and industrial waste. Thus, the initial workload for conducting RDF-specific analyses could be significantly reduced when some more data about different types of RDFs are collected (e.g in a database).

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Keywords

• Refuse derived fuels
• Balance Method
• Biomass content
• Fossil carbon
• Elemental composition
• Manual sorting

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Editorial History

• Received: 23 Jan 2018
• Revised: 15 May 2018
• Accepted: 25 Jun 2018
• Available online: 30 Jun 2018

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