Grinding and Pelleting Characteristics of Municipal Solid Waste Fractions

Zachary Smith (), Blesson Isaac, Jaya Shankar Tumuluru and Neal Yancey
Additional contact information
Zachary Smith: Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID 83415, USA
Blesson Isaac: Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID 83415, USA
Jaya Shankar Tumuluru: Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Laboratory, USDA-ARS (United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service), Las Cruces, NM 88047, USA
Neal Yancey: Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID 83415, USA

Energies, 2023, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: The efficient utilization of low-cost carbon feedstocks, such as municipal solid waste (MSW), in biorefineries has become increasingly important for reducing GHG emissions and meeting the growing demand for renewable energy sources. However, MSW as a feedstock presents several challenges, including high moisture content, compositional variability, particle size and shape, density, and ash content. To address these challenges, the potential of mechanical dewatering and high-moisture pelleting processes for densifying MSW fractions, such as paper, cardboard, thin plastic, and thick plastic, into low-cost carbon feedstocks with improved handling and conversion properties were investigated. The effect of these preprocessing technologies on the critical quality attributes (CQAs) of the resulting pellets, including bulk density, durability, and size uniformity, were evaluated. The results showed that with these preprocessing technologies, the paper and cardboard fractions could be pelleted at moisture contents over 40% (w.b.) while achieving >99% durability and >300 kg/m 3 , while the high moisture plastic fractions were not suitable for pelleting. The thick plastic fraction processed in a screw press was shown to remove up to 30% of the moisture content in a single pass. These findings suggest that these mechanical preprocessing technologies can improve the physical properties of low-cost municipal solid waste fractions for biofuels production.

Keywords: MSW fractions; preprocessing; mechanical treatment; pellets; biomass; feedstock (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:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/1/29/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/1/29/ (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:17:y:2023:i:1:p:29-:d:1303924

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 ().