A method to characterise the volatile release of solid recovered fuels (SRF)

A method was developed and successfully applied to characterise the de-volatilisation process of solid recovered fuels (SRF). Following the definitions of the European initiative on SRF standardisation CEN/TC 343, this kind of fuels have to be produced from non-hazardous bio-residues, mixed- and mono-waste streams, and they are designated to be used either in mono- or co-combustion processes. Consequently, SRF are – in most cases – heterogeneous fuel mixtures. The de-volatilisation process was identified as highly relevant due to the nature of fuel: most SRF components do not evolve a char comparable to coal. Furthermore, large particle sizes do not allow the application of common approaches to determine kinetic parameters. The method presented in this paper relies on thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA). By successful combination with other well-established analytical procedures, the obtainable information towards the de-volatilisation process was largely improved. The method allows a quantification of energy and elemental distribution between volatiles and char during the de-volatilisation process in relation to the particle temperature. The data can be used to compare SRF or SRF components with other “known” fuels such as lignite and biomass. Moreover, the data is suitable as input data for combustion models. Focus of this paper is the analytical procedure including the required calculations. In addition, first results are presented and some ideas towards the use of the results are discussed.