An investigation on pollutant emissions from co-firing of RDF and coal

Pollutant emissions from co-firing of refuse derived fuel (RDF) and coal were investigated in a vortexing fluidized bed combustor (VFBC). RDF-5 was made of common municipal solid waste (MSW). CaCO3 was injected in the combustor to absorb HCl at 850 °C. The results show that NOx and HCl emissions increase with RDF-5 co-firing ratio. The NOx concentration in flue gas at the bottom of the combustor is higher than that at the top. However, the trend of HCl released is reverse compared with NOx emissions. It was found that the HCl concentration decreases with increasing the molar ratio of Ca/Cl. However, the effect of CaCO3 addition on HCl retention is not significant when the molar ratio of Ca/Cl is higher than 5. The chlorine content in fly ash increases obviously with the molar ratio of Ca/Cl. PCDD/Fs emissions decrease slightly with an addition of CaCO3. In this study incomplete combustion is regarded as the main cause for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) formation.