Many systems for utilizing the heat energy in municipal refuse are in various stages of development. These systems either use unprocessed solid waste as a fuel or derive a fuel through processing. The fuels produced vary radically in heating value. The energy expended in processing differs from one process to another and the potential end use is not the same for each system. Six representative systems are compared to determine the relative potential value of refuse as a source of energy.
Determination of thermal performance or efficiency of steam generators by traditional ASME procedures is a complex and difficult undertaking. When the fuel is municipal solid waste, additional variables are introduced to confound the procedures further. A new approach is proposed as a basis for discussion. The intent of the new approach is to reduce the time and effort required to achieve agreement that a municipal-solid-waste-fired steam generator has performed as specified and/or guaranteed.
The authors are to be complimented for presenting an interesting new approach to the always tedious procedure of testing large incinerators with waterwall furnaces and boilers for energy recovery.The greatest "unknown" in determining an incinerator performance is always the heating value of the everchanging heterogeneous composition of the MSW (municipal solid waste). It is therefore almost useless to attempt to collect a representative sample of the MSW for calorimetric analysis, especially for large incinerators such as indicated under reference [2] in this paper, which is based on a daily throughput of 600 t/day or 25 t/hr or 50,000 lb/hr.To obtain a representative performance picture, the selected test period for such a unit should be at least 8 hr, during which 2001 of representative MSW is to be burned.Even when collecting typical samples at 15-min intervals during an 8-hr test run, assuming that a 2.5-kg calorimeter instead of the usual 10-g sample were available, only 80 kg or 176 lb out of 400,000 lb, which equals 0.044 percent, would be analyzed.27,580 lb/hr 289,900 lb/hr In conclusion, it can be said that any disregard of the
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