Quantitative Model of Interactions in the Thermal Decomposition of Key Refuse-Derived Fuel Components

Abstract

Advanced thermal treatment of refuse-derived fuels (RDFs) necessitates accurate determination of the key component fractions and comprehensive understanding of the decomposition characteristics during thermal conversion. In this paper, the linear weighted sum method is employed to retrieve mass fractions of key components in different municipal solid waste (MSW)-derived fuel pellets through thermogravimetric (TG) analysis. A new Gaussian-fitting-based adjusting model is proposed to quantitatively assess the effect of the interaction on the decomposition of individual components based on differential thermogravimetric (DTG) analysis. Results show that the mass fractions of combustible key components can be determined from DTG curves and by applying the Gaussian-fitting-based adjusting model, the effects of the interaction on the decomposition of polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and cellulose can be identified. It is found that, after mixing PE into RDFs, both the reaction time and activation energy of PE are decreased. The degradation of PVC starts at a higher temperature within the temperature range from 200 to 380 °C, and its reaction time is decreased by 50% within the temperature range from 380 to 500 °C. The activation energy of cellulose is slightly increased. The model proposed in this paper could be a promising method to evaluate the interaction between different key components in mixed samples for optimizing the parameters of the thermal conversion system.

Pollutant Emissions during Co-incineration of Landfill Material Refuse-Derived Fuel in a Lab-Scale Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Fluidized Bed Furnace

“…In comparison to the previous work, the initial activation energy of the combustible components of MSW was 5.12 kJ/mol, while the initial activation energy of Shandong RDF reported by Huang et al. was 13.9 kJ/mol in ref . This trend was largely related to the components of waste in the RDF 1 and LMRDF.…”

Experimental study on air/steam gasification of leather scraps using U-type catalytic gasification for producing hydrogen-enriched syngas

“…In the past few years, the generation of hydrogen-enriched syngas from biomass or combustible wastes by gasification methods received intensive interests [3e5] and many previous studies found that compared with conventional direct incineration which imposed potential risk resulted from dioxins and toxic heavy metals [6,7] to the health of local residents, converting solid waste into combustible syngas through gasification showed great environment attraction [8]. Luo et al [9,10] investigated the generation of hydrogen-enriched syngas from the gasification of municipal solid waste (MSW) and biomass in a lab-scale fixed bed reactor and found that hydrogen yield reached the highest value at 900 C for both MSW and biomass when steam was used as gasifying agent.…”

Effect of Reaction Conditions on Energy Yield of Pyrolysis Gas from Apple Tree Branches

“…For a sample of 100 g of apple tree branches, the gas production decreased from 76.67 to 65.33 L as the heating rate increased from 1 to 6 °C/min. This phenomenon can be attributed to the rapid heating rate, which impairs the efficient conversion of both internal and external biomass energy, leading to slower volatiles release and thus reduced gas production. Furthermore, a lower heating rate for pyrolysis prolongs the reaction time, allowing organic macromolecules (cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin) to fully decompose. , On the other hand, an increase in the heating rate from 1 to 6 °C/min slightly elevates the heat value of the gas, from 13.23 to 13.29 MJ/m 3 .…”