Thermogravimetric Analysis of Single-Particle RDF Combustion

An alternative to solve the problem of energy supply is to find the renewable energy sources which have abundant reserves. Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) can be one of the solutions to form a Refused Derived Fuels (RDF) such as MSW char briquette through pyrolysis and densification processes. In this work, thermogravimetry analysis has been performed to analyze the combustion characteristic of MSW char briquette. The sample was made by 70 wt.% of the MSW organic components and 30 wt.% of the MSW non organic components. 20 grams of the sample were heated in the reactor whose temperature was increased by 10 °C/min from room temperature to 400 °C. The samples were then held for 30 minutes before it was cooled down to room temperature. Approximately, 100 ml/min of the nitrogen gas was introduced from the bottom of the reactor as a swept gas. Three grams of the produced char taken from earlier process was placed in the furnace whose temperature was increased by a selected heating rate until the mass of the sample was nearly constant. The results showed that the burning profiles of RDF could not be approached directly from the sum of a single component, because of the processing parameters affecting the combustion processes. Compared with the experimental results, the calculation of the combustion activation energy showed a significant difference indicating that the briquette combustion could be approximated by a Shrinking Core Model (SCM).