Solid recovered fuel: An experiment on classification and potential applications

Area of Science:

• Waste Management
• Environmental Engineering
• Material Science

Background:

• Prato district's urban waste has high calorific value, suitable for waste-to-energy (WtE) plants.
• Central Italy lacks WtE facilities, leading to mechanical treatment and regional export of waste fractions.
• Previous legislation restricted energy recovery to specific dry streams, with others landfilled.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate if output streams from a mechanical treatment plant in Prato can be classified as Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) under new Italian regulations.
• To assess the potential for reducing landfilling and increasing energy recovery from urban waste.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a sampling and analysis campaign on all output streams from the mechanical treatment plant.
• Characterized each stream based on operating conditions of the plant.
• Assessed compliance with the European standard EN 15359:2011 for SRF classification.

Main Results:

• All output streams from the mechanical treatment plant were classified as SRF.
• A wide quality range was observed across the different SRF streams.
• Lower quality streams are suitable for WtE plants, while high-quality streams can substitute coal in cement and power plants.

Conclusions:

• The new SRF classification enables significant reduction in landfilling of urban waste.
• Energy recovery from waste is maximized, reducing environmental impact.
• Waste streams can be utilized in both dedicated WtE facilities and non-dedicated industrial plants.