1)Discuss the concept, design and operation of refuse derived fuel.

Your discussion should

also include the advantages and disadvantages of each

The Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is a fuel produced through the management of

municipal solid waste (MSW). RDF can be also named as Solid Recovered Fuel or
Specified Recovered Fuel (SRF). The domestic wastes (residual wastes after separate
collection of recoverable materials) are treated through mechanical reprocessing and
fractionation.(Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives October 2013, 2013) The RDF
obtained from this process is traded and co-burnt in installations for power generation or in
a manufacturing process where heat is required (e.g. cement production). RDF is made up
of organic components of municipal waste such as plastics and biodegradable wastes that
are processed in order to obtain a product with a high calorific value.
The RDF is design to overcome the facing problem by municipal government such as
filing up of the landfills and dumpsite, the leaking of the dumpsite to the environment and
etc. RDF is burned in dedicated RDF incinerators or is co-incinerated with coal or oil in
multi-fuel boilers or cement kilns. Cement kilns and industrial boilers are not designed to
burn waste and generally have poor pollution control mechanisms that are not capable of
capturing pollution caused by the use of conventional fuel like coal, let alone RDF, which is
a more heterogeneous and toxin-laden fuel.

Figure 1: Concept of the RDF Plant

The advantages of the RDF is permits to manage and valorize municipal waste and it
is a valid alternative to dumping and landfill. Statistical data report that EU Countries still
dump around 233Kg per person of municipal refusals. Furthermore, the use of RDF in
industrial processes offers more flexibility than the simple incineration of waste. Its use
permits to reduce the emission of CO2 since the plants can partially replace the use of fossil
fuel. According to the national environment policies, the use of RDF permits to obtain a
tradable commodity as white and green certificates. These certificates respectively prove
that a specified amount of energy saving has been achieved and that certain electricity is
generated using renewable energy sources.

There are several advantages of the waste-burning technologies such as RDF which is
production of the poisonous and greenhouse gases, as well as toxic ash, which are inevitably
released into the environment. Moreover, destruction of the valuable resources, precluding
their re-use and wasting the energy and labour invested in their production. In the
production of the RDF, the production is encourage while discouraging recycling and
segregation of waste at sources such as there is mechanical segregation place in production
line.
Incinerators are highly controversial because of the toxic emissions, hazardous
byproducts, and destruction of resources that they inevitably cause. In order to dodge
opposition and make the burning of waste more acceptable to the public, the industry has
adopted the term waste to energy (WTE) to emphasize a seemingly advantageous tradeoff of trash (undesirable) for electricity (desirable) (Yen, n.d.). The truth is that the
mechanical segregation technologies that are part of RDF production cannot eliminate
common toxic substances like PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic or other domestic hazardous
wastes like CFL tube lights that contain mercury. Incineration releases these harmful
chemicals into the environment.

2) Discuss the concept of pyrolysis and gasification.

Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of waste biomass in the complete absence of

oxygen. Unlike mass burn, and gasification, pyrolysis uses an external source of heat and
does not rely on oxygen to sustain the internal process(Rapids, County, & Waste, 2008). In
pyrolysis systems, thermal cracking and condensation are used to transform organic
substances into gaseous, liquid and solid components.
Gasification converts waste to gases, liquids, and char. The gasification process
allows a small amount of air, steam or oxygen into the conversion process. This addition of
oxygen, steam, or air changes the output products from gasification. Output products from
gasification are gases, liquids and char. The gases consist of carbon monoxide, hydrogen,
nitrogen and carbon dioxide(Rapids et al., 2008).The liquid portion from the gasification
process tends to be in the form of tars. Finally, the char is the ash that is formed since the
gasification process does include some air or oxygen which will cause some materials to burn
and form ash.

Figure 2: Process Diagram Gasification

REFERENCE
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives October 2013. (2013), (October), 112.
Rapids, C., County, L., & Waste, S. (2008). Alternative Waste Processing Technologies
Analysis, (March).
Yen, L. B. (n.d.). Processing of Refuse Derived Fuels ( RDF-Plants ) From waste to valuable
secondary products . Processing of Refuse Derived Fuels ( RDF-Plants ) Definition.