Solid Recovered Fuel: Materials Flow Analysis and Fuel Property Development during the Mechanical Processing of Biodried Waste

Material flows and their contributions to fuel properties are balanced for the mechanical section of a mechanical–biological treatment (MBT) plant producing solid recovered fuel (SRF) for the UK market. Insights for this and similar plants were secured through a program of sampling, manual sorting, statistics, analytical property determination, and material flow analysis (MFA) with error propagation and data reconciliation. Approximately three-quarters of the net calorific value (Q_net,p,ar) present in the combustible fraction of the biodried flow is incorporated into the SRF (73.2 ± 8.6%), with the important contributors being plastic film (30.7 MJ kg_ar^–1), other packaging plastic (26.1 MJ kg_ar^–1), and paper/card (13.0 MJ kg_ar^–1). Nearly 80% w/w of the chlorine load in the biodried flow is incorporated into SRF (78.9 ± 26.2%), determined by the operation of the trommel and air classifier. Through the use of a novel mass balancing procedure, SRF quality is understood, thus improving on the understanding of quality assurance in SRF. Quantification of flows, transfer coefficients, and fuel properties allows recommendations to be made for process optimization and the production of a reliable and therefore marketable SRF product