Investigation of particle-specific characteristics of non-hazardous, fine shredded mixed waste

The smart waste factory of the future will be monitored and controlled by a combination of various sensors and several real-time data sets. One essential data requirement relates to waste streams at different stages of the treatment process. In order to analyse waste by sensor-based technology, a solid database of representative waste data is necessary. Usually, this data is collected of mixed waste. The present paper describes waste on the level of individual waste particles. In the first step, particles from fine-shredded (<30 mm), non-hazardous, mixed waste have been investigated. As an example for this material, solid recovered fuel (SRF) has been used. 20 samples from five SRF-producers have been collected. From each of these samples, 800 particles have been extracted, covering eight waste fractions. In total, 15,542 particles were examined regarding their projected particle area and their particle mass. Both parameters are log-normal distributed with a median for the area of 3.62 cm² and for the mass of 0.19 g. To investigate the relationship between the two parameters, the Pearson-Correlation-Coefficient of the logarithmised data has been calculated. The resulting coefficient of 0.57 means a good correlation. Additionally, the fuel parameters of the individual fractions were measured using laboratory analysis on composite samples of the five SRF-producers. The lower heating value, the ash content and the chlorine content are either in the range or slightly lower than the data from literature. Additional work is required to improve the usability of the data obtained for the real-time analysis of waste.