Bio-Drying Role in Changeable Scenarios of Romanian MSW Management

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to propose solutions for Romanian MSW treatment based on the bio-drying process as a tool for supporting the transient period necessary for complying with the EU regulations. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to compare four scenarios suitable for municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment. This case-study is interesting as waste management in Romania is changing quickly as a consequence of its recent entrance into the EU. For each scenario mass and energy balances have been developed taking into account the waste ultimate and proximate analysis, the lower heating value (LHV) of waste and also the energy consumption of each step of treatment. Results showed that selective collection plays an important role in decreasing the mass to be landfilled. The grate system guarantees the highest exploitation of the initial energy content of waste, but in this paper, direct combustion is not considered (the LHV of Romanian MSW is so low for a good combustion). A pre-treatment before combustion on grate is controversial because the addition of a treatment stage increases the cost of the management. Results demonstrated that a fluidized bed cannot give back the energy necessary for preparing Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). This limit resulted also from the scenario with gasification. The use of RDF in a large thermal power plant as a substitute of coal can exploit the higher efficiencies of the electricity conversion; in the study the LHV of RDF is anyway critical and alternative solutions must be taken into account for increasing its energy content.

Microbial Diversity of Vermicompost Bacteria that Exhibit Useful Agricultural Traits and Waste Management Potential

“…11 For a better understanding of the potential of the bio-drying process applied to exhausted grape marc: i. lasting was doubled; ii. data from respirometry tests regarding the oxygen consumption of the exhausted grape marc before and after the bio-drying process, were generated; iii.…”

Perspectives of refuse-derived fuel in Romania after entrance into the EU

“…However all these plants treat only 10% of the produced biodegradable waste. For this reason, the bio-drying treatment with SRF production and its energy valorisation seems to be the most viable solution for the Romanian MSW [18,19,22]. Romanian RMSW has generally high organic fraction content (about 50%).…”

“…Fluctuations can depend on selective collection, but this sector is not yet developed to levels that can significantly affect the RMSW composition as in other EU countries [23][24][25]. In order to study the viability of bio-drying for generating SRF for Romanian RMSW, this process was applied at pilot scale [1,3,5,18,19].…”

“…Selective collection (SC) in Romania has a very low efficiency, and for that reason the residual MSW (RMSW) has a high organic fraction content: about 50% in urban areas [14,15] because of the very low food waste selective collection. For this reason the bio-drying process could be developed successfully as demonstrated by different literature researches [5,[16][17][18][19][20]. After a refining stage SRF can be sent to coal fired power stations or to cement kilns for partially substituting coal and pet-coke [7,8].…”

Biodrying process: a sustainable technology for treatment of municipal solid wastes organic fraction

“…Process of biodrying utilizes the auto thermal heat genera-tion due to microbial action on waste material instead of thermal treatments in conventional drying process. Hence this is an energy saving process when compared to drying since it effectively utilizes the biological heat energy [7,8].…”