Youngjae Kim*, Toshihiko Matsuto* and Nobutoshi Tanaka*

*Department of Environmental and Sanitary Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Hokkaido University

+ Correspondence should be addressed to Toshihiko Matsuto:
(Nishi 8, Kita 13, Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060 Japan)

Abstract

A one year survey of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) properties has been done for four RDF facilities in which RDF is produced from household waste.

Fuel properties of RDF are mostly influenced by garbage and plastics content. High moisture content of garbage reduces the efficiency of incombustible separation, leading to high ash content of RDF. High plastics content of raw refuse increases the calorific value, and volatile chlorine content of RDF. The volatile chlorine for the most part comes from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), so HCl gas control is required for two facilities which use only plastics or plastics & paper components, but not for the other two facilities, whose input is almost the same components as household waste, including garbage. Moisture content of 10 percent or less may not cause putrefaction when RDF containing garbage is stored.

Key words: household waste, refuse derived fuel, raw refuse composition, fuel properties, mass balance