Resource Recovery of Municipal Solid Wastes AlChE Symposium Series, Number 265, Volume 84.

American Institute of Chemical Engineers, New York, 1988, 198 Seiten mit wenigen Bildern. Taschenbuch, Paperback.

In the early 1970's resource recovery from municipal solid wastes received much attention in the United States. This was primarily due to the energy crisis which gave impetus to the development of alternative fuels. Another reason was the search for an alternative to problems that have been encountered with the mass-burn technologies. In the aftermath of that period, a number of commercial size refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plants were built. Before they became operational, however, most of these plants required extensive modifications and redesign which resulted in a trend back to the use of mass-burn systems. Section 1 provides a discussion of the successes, failures, and lessons that have been learned at six different commercial size RDF plants in the United States. Resource recovery from municipal solid wastes has gained increased attention in recent years due to the closing of numerous landfills. The difficulty in siting new landfills as a result of the NIMBY (not in my back yard") syndrome is also another factor. Consequently, debate over the advantages and disadvantages of RDF versus mass-burn systems has been reawakened and the lessons learned at existing RDF plants provide a new benchmark for comparison. The technical capabilities for solving our waste disposal problems already exist and this book provides a variety of examples of the different types of processing systems. The more fundamental long term problems, however, are political and cultural. Section 2 provides examples of different technologies developed in six different overseas countries, with insights into the cultural and political circumstances that have contributed to the success of these systems. The success of an RDF or mass-burn facility depends on many factors other than the choice of a given technology. The plant size, the political and regulatory environment, and the bottom line economics are all factors to be considered. Ongoing research and development efforts will further increase the choice of options available in the future and Section 3 provides information on the next generation of RDF technologies involving thermal, biological, and densified RDF systems. Environmental and economic considerations in processing municipal solid wastes are examined in Section 4. This includes an outline of the environmental consequences of various municipal solid waste disposal practices, characterization of refuse-derived fuels, state-of-the-art flue gas cleaning technologies, regulatory aspects of dioxin emissions, ash management issues, optimization of plant operations to minimize environmental risks, and trends associated with the financing of public works projects and their relationship to municipal solid waste projects. Long term solutions to our solid waste disposal problems will involve a combination of different technologies depending on the locations and the political and cultural environments at those locations. This book provides the reader with a variety of options that are available to choose from. All of these options will still include the use of landfills and Section 5 provides insights into state-of-the-art sanitary landfill designs.".