Influence of RDF Composition on Mercury Release during Thermal Pretreatment

Marcelina Bury (), Tadeusz Dziok, Karel Borovec and Piotr Burmistrz
Additional contact information
Marcelina Bury: Faculty of Energy and Fuels, AGH University of Science and Technology, Al. A. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Tadeusz Dziok: Faculty of Energy and Fuels, AGH University of Science and Technology, Al. A. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Karel Borovec: Energy Research Center VŠB, Technical University of Ostrava, 17. Listopadu 15/2172, 708-33 Ostrava, Czech Republic
Piotr Burmistrz: Faculty of Energy and Fuels, AGH University of Science and Technology, Al. A. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-13

Abstract: The growing world population is contributing to the increasing amounts of waste and a significant increase in energy demand. Therefore, coal will increasingly be replaced by refuse-derived fuel (RDF), which is produced from municipal solid waste. The use of such fuel poses many difficulties because of its heterogeneity and high mercury emission. One method to stabilize the properties of RDF and reduce the mercury content is thermal pretreatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the release of mercury from RDF samples following thermal pretreatment. The study was carried out in the temperature range of 100–350 °C. Statistical analysis was performed on the correlation between the composition of the RDF samples and the release of mercury. The RDF samples showed a very high variation in the mercury content, ranging from 45 to 849 µg Hg/kg (1.7 to 35.3 µg Hg/MJ). Thermal pretreatment removed a significant amount of mercury at 250 °C (94–99%). Paper content positively affected mercury release. Relatively low correlation coefficients were obtained in the statistical analysis, which may be explained by the significant heterogeneity of the RDF samples magnified by the variability in the mercury content within particular fractions.

Keywords: mercury; mercury removal; thermal pretreatment; alternative fuels; waste; RDF (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/2/772/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/2/772/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:2:p:772-:d:1030104

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().