Methodology for Modeling the Devolatilization of Refuse-Derived Fuel from Thermogravimetric Analysis of Municipal Solid Waste Components

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Abstract
The capacity of waste-to-energy (WTE) plants in the U.S. is expected to double by the year 2000. Many of these plants will burn refuse-derived fuel (RDF) consisting of municipal solid waste (MSW) components. A large percentage of the mass of RDF is volatile matter, which when combusted, contributes significantly to the boiler heat rate. A methodology is presented for estimating the devolatilization characteristics of RDF based on the premise that RDF can be modeled as some combination of select MSW components. Thermogravimetric analyses of these components provide the input data to the methodology. The outputs from the methodology are calculations of volatile weight loss versus temperature, or calculated thermograms, for the components at userdefined conditions. The hypothesis was made that these thermograms could be summed, given the mix of components in the RDF, to give an accurate description of the devolatilization process for the RDF. This hypothesis was tested by performing thermogravimetric analysis on MSW components that included newspaper and plastic consumer goods made from polystyrene foam, polyethylene terepthalate, polypropylene, and high-density polyethylene. These components were analyzed both as individual samples and as a controlled mixture that served as a surrogate RDF sample. The samples were heated within the the thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) at a rate of 50°C/min in a nitrogen flow. Thermograms were calculated for the components and then summed according to the methodology. The calculations matched the thermogravimetric data for the surrogate RDF sample, thus supporting the hypothesis that RDF devolatilization is described by the superposition of the volatile weight loss for the constituent materials.

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