RDF Business

RDF consists largely of combustible components of such waste, as non recyclable plastics (not including PVC), paper cardboard, labels, and other corrugated materials. These fractions are separated by different processing steps, such as screening, air classification, ballistic separation, separation of ferrous and non ferrous materials, glass, stones and other foreign materials and shredding into a uniform grain size, or also pelletized in order to produce a homogeneous material which can be used as substitute for fossil fuels in e.g. cement plants, lime plants, coal fired power plants or as reduction agent in steel furnaces. If documented according to CEN/TC 343 it can be labeled as solid recovered fuels (SRF).  

Others describe the properties, such as: 

 • Secondary fuels 

• Substitute fuels 

• “AF“ as an abbreviation for alternative fuels

 • Ultimately most of the designations are only general paraphrases for alternative fuels which are either waste-derived or biomass-derived. 

There is no universal exact classification or specification which is used for such materials. Even legislative authorities have not yet established any exact guidelines on the type and composition of alternative fuels. The first approaches towards classification or specification are to be found in Germany (Bundesgütegemeinschaft für Sekundärbrennstoffe) as well as at European level (European Recovered Fuel Organisation). These approaches which are initiated primarily by the producers of alternative fuels, follow a correct approach: Only through an exactly defined standardisation in the composition of such materials can both production and utilisation be uniform worldwide. 

First approaches towards alternative fuel classification:  

Solid recovered fuels are part of RDF in the fact that it is produced to reach a standard such as CEN/343 ANAS. A comprehensive review is now available on RDF production, quality standards and thermal recovery, including statistics on European RDF quality.  

Materials such as glass and metals are removed during the treatment processing since they are non-combustible. The metal is removed using a magnet and the glass using mechanical screening. After that, an air knife is used to separate the light materials from the heavy ones. The light materials have higher calorific value and they create the final RDF. The heavy materials will usually continue to a landfill. The residual material can be sold in its processed form (depending on the process treatment) as a plain mixture or it may be compressed into pellet fuel, bricks or logs and used for other purposes either stand-alone or in a recursive recycling process. RDF is the combustible sub-fraction of municipal solid waste and other similar solid waste, produced using a mix of mechanical and/or biological treatment methods such as biodrying  in mechanical-biological treatment (MBT) plants. During the production of RDF in MBT plants there are solid loses of otherwise combustible material, which generates a debate whether the production and use of RDF is resource efficient or not over traditional one-step combustion of residual MSW in incineration (Energy from waste) plants.  The production of RDF may involve the following steps: 

• Bag splitting/Shredding 

• Size screening

 • Magnetic separation

 • Air classifier (density separation) 

• Coarse shredding 

• Refining separation by infrared separation 

 RDF as a suitable waste to energy Fuel: RDF can be used in a variety of ways to produce electricity or as a replacement of fossil fuels. It can be used alongside traditional sources of fuel in coal power plants. In Europe RDF can be used in the cement kiln industry, where strict air pollution control standards of the Waste Incineration Directive apply. RDF can also be fed into plasma arc gasification modules & pyrolysis plants. Where the RDF is capable of being combusted cleanly or in compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, RDF can provide a funding source where unused carbon credits are sold on the open market via a carbon exchange. However, the use of municipal waste contracts and the bankability of these solutions is still a relatively new concept, thus RDF's financial advantage may be debatable. The European market for the production of RDF have been grown fast due to the European landfill directive and the imposition of landfill taxes. Refuse derived fuel (RDF) exports from the UK to Europe and beyond are expected to have reached 3.3 million tonnes in 2015, representing a near-500,000 tonnes increase on the previous year.