IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i11p4645-d368105.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Pelletization of Refuse-Derived Fuel with Varying Compositions of Plastic, Paper, Organic and Wood

Author

Listed:
  • Hamid Rezaei

    (Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada)

  • Fahimeh Yazdan Panah

    (Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada)

  • C. Jim Lim

    (Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada)

  • Shahab Sokhansanj

    (Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3, Canada
    Chemical and Biological Engineering Department, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK 3B48, Canada)

Abstract

The combustible fraction of municipal solid waste (MSW) is called refuse-derived fuel (RDF). RDF is a blend of heterogeneous materials and thus its handling is challenging. Pelletization is an efficient treatment to minimize the heterogeneity. In this research, typical RDF compositions were prepared by mixing several mass fractions of paper, plastic, household organic and wood. The collected compositions were ground, wetted to 20% moisture content (wet basis) and pelletized. Increasing the plastic content from 20% to 40% reduced the pelletization energy but increased the pellet’s calorific value. Pellets with higher plastic content generated more dust when exposed to shaking. Making durable pellets with 40% plastic content needed an increase in die temperature from 80 °C to 100 °C. Increasing the paper content from 30% to 50% increased the durability but consumed higher energy to form pellets. Paper particles increased the friction between pellet’s surface and die wall as was evident from expulsion energy. Force versus displacement curve for material compression revealed that the RDF compositions have rigid material characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamid Rezaei & Fahimeh Yazdan Panah & C. Jim Lim & Shahab Sokhansanj, 2020. "Pelletization of Refuse-Derived Fuel with Varying Compositions of Plastic, Paper, Organic and Wood," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-11, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:11:p:4645-:d:368105
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4645/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/11/4645/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Larsson, Sylvia H. & Lestander, Torbjörn A. & Crompton, Dave & Melin, Staffan & Sokhansanj, Shahab, 2012. "Temperature patterns in large scale wood pellet silo storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 322-327.
    2. Rezaei, Hamid & Sokhansanj, Shahab, 2018. "Physical and thermal characterization of ground bark and ground wood particles," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 129(PA), pages 583-590.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rakesh Kumar & Anurag Verma & Arkajyoti Shome & Rama Sinha & Srishti Sinha & Prakash Kumar Jha & Ritesh Kumar & Pawan Kumar & Shubham & Shreyas Das & Prabhakar Sharma & P. V. Vara Prasad, 2021. "Impacts of Plastic Pollution on Ecosystem Services, Sustainable Development Goals, and Need to Focus on Circular Economy and Policy Interventions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-41, September.
    2. Nikola Čajová Kantová & Pavol Belány & Michal Holubčík & Alexander Čaja, 2022. "Energy Consumption Depending on the Durability of Pellets Formed from Sawdust with an Admixture of FFP2 Masks," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-9, June.
    3. Santa Margarida Santos & Catarina Nobre & Paulo Brito & Margarida Gonçalves, 2023. "Brief Overview of Refuse-Derived Fuel Production and Energetic Valorization: Applied Technology and Main Challenges," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-22, June.
    4. Karolina Wojtacha-Rychter & Piotr Kucharski & Adam Smolinski, 2021. "Conventional and Alternative Sources of Thermal Energy in the Production of Cement—An Impact on CO 2 Emission," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-15, March.
    5. Paolino Caputo & Pietro Calandra & Valeria Loise & Adolfo Le Pera & Ana-Maria Putz & Abraham A. Abe & Luigi Madeo & Bagdat Teltayev & Maria Laura Luprano & Michela Alfè & Valentina Gargiulo & Giovanna, 2022. "When Physical Chemistry Meets Circular Economy to Solve Environmental Issues: How the ReScA Project Aims at Using Waste Pyrolysis Products to Improve and Rejuvenate Bitumens," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-17, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chapela, Sergio & Cid, Natalia & Porteiro, Jacobo & Míguez, José Luis, 2020. "Numerical transient modelling of the fouling phenomena and its influence on thermal performance in a low-scale biomass shell boiler," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 309-318.
    2. Jiayu Wei & Can Yao & Changdong Sheng, 2023. "Modelling Self-Heating and Self-Ignition Processes during Biomass Storage," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-17, May.
    3. Warguła, Łukasz & Kukla, Mateusz & Wieczorek, Bartosz & Krawiec, Piotr, 2022. "Energy consumption of the wood size reduction processes with employment of a low-power machines with various cutting mechanisms," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 630-639.
    4. Biswas, Amit Kumar & Rudolfsson, Magnus & Broström, Markus & Umeki, Kentaro, 2014. "Effect of pelletizing conditions on combustion behaviour of single wood pellet," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 79-84.
    5. Chapela, S. & Porteiro, J. & Garabatos, M. & Patiño, D. & Gómez, M.A. & Míguez, J.L., 2019. "CFD study of fouling phenomena in small-scale biomass boilers: Experimental validation with two different boilers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 552-562.
    6. Whittaker, Carly & Shield, Ian, 2017. "Factors affecting wood, energy grass and straw pellet durability – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 1-11.
    7. Li, Hui & Liu, Xinhua & Legros, Robert & Bi, Xiaotao T. & Jim Lim, C. & Sokhansanj, Shahab, 2012. "Pelletization of torrefied sawdust and properties of torrefied pellets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 680-685.
    8. Sahoo, Kamalakanta & Bilek, E.M. (Ted) & Mani, Sudhagar, 2018. "Techno-economic and environmental assessments of storing woodchips and pellets for bioenergy applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 27-39.
    9. Kong, Lingjun & Tian, ShuangHong & He, Chun & Du, Changming & Tu, YuTing & Xiong, Ya, 2012. "Effect of waste wrapping paper fiber as a “solid bridge” on physical characteristics of biomass pellets made from wood sawdust," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 33-39.
    10. Lenço, Paulo César & Ramirez-Quintero, Deyber Alexander & Bizzo, Waldir Antonio, 2020. "Characterization of sugarcane bagasse particles separated by elutriation for energy generation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 712-721.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:11:p:4645-:d:368105. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.