Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications
Campus Units
Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, Food Science and Human Nutrition, Environmental Science, Toxicology
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
2021
Journal or Book Title
Materials
Volume
14
Issue
1
First Page
49
Research Focus Area(s)
Biological and Process Engineering and Technology
DOI
10.3390/ma14010049
Abstract
The decrease in the calorific value of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is an unintended outcome of the progress made toward more sustainable waste management. Plastics and paper separation and recycling leads to the overall decrease in waste’s calorific value, further limiting its applicability for thermal treatment. Pyrolysis has been proposed to densify energy in RDF and generate carbonized solid fuel (CSF). The challenge is that the feedstock composition of RDF is variable and site-specific. Therefore, the optimal pyrolysis conditions have to be established every time, depending on feedstock composition. In this research, we developed a model to predict the higher heating value (HHV) of the RDF composed of eight morphological refuse groups after low-temperature pyrolysis in CO2 (300–500 °C and 60 min) into CSF. The model considers cardboard, fabric, kitchen waste, paper, plastic, rubber, PAP/AL/PE (paper/aluminum/polyethylene) composite packaging pack, and wood, pyrolysis temperature, and residence time. The determination coefficients (R2) and Akaike information criteria were used for selecting the best model among four mathematical functions: (I) linear, (II) second-order polynomial, (III) factorial regression, and (IV) quadratic regression. For each RDF waste component, among these four models, the one best fitted to the experimental data was chosen; then, these models were integrated into the general model that predicts the HHV of CSF from the blends of RDF. The general model was validated experimentally by the application to the RDF blends. The validation revealed that the model explains 70–75% CSF HHV data variability. The results show that the optimal pyrolysis conditions depend on the most abundant waste in the waste mixture. High-quality CSF can be obtained from wastes such as paper, carton, plastic, and rubber when processed at relatively low temperatures (300 °C), whereas wastes such as fabrics and wood require higher temperatures (500 °C). The developed model showed that it is possible to achieve the CSF with the highest HHV value by optimizing the pyrolysis of RDF with the process temperature, residence time, and feedstock blends pretreatment
Access
Open
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright Owner
The Author(s)
Copyright Date
2020
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Syguła, Ewa; Świechowski, Kacper; Stępień, Paweł; Koziel, Jacek A.; and Białowiec, Andrzej, "The Prediction of Calorific Value of Carbonized Solid Fuel Produced from Refuse-Derived Fuel in the Low-Temperature Pyrolysis in CO2" (2021). Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications. 1167.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/abe_eng_pubs/1167
Included in
Bioresource and Agricultural Engineering Commons, Energy Systems Commons, Sustainability Commons
Comments
This article is published as Syguła, E., Świechowski, K., Stępień, P., Koziel, J.A., and Białowiec, A. The Prediction of Calorific Value of Carbonized Solid Fuel Produced from Refuse-Derived Fuel in the Low-Temperature Pyrolysis in CO2. Materials 14, no. 1 (2021): 49. DOI: 10.3390/ma14010049. Posted with permission.