Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2020
Department
Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics
Abstract
The amount of solid waste generated annually is increasing around the world. Although the waste has a high calorific value, one major obstacle that may prevent it from becoming a feedstock for power applications is the existence of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which causes corrosion and emission issues after combustion due to its high chlorine content. Torrefaction is known to release hydrochloric acid; thus, it has been applied in this study for the reduction of chlorine from potential waste feedstocks. Fiber-plastic (60-40%) waste blends, with different chlorine content levels, as well as PVC were used in the current study. Torrefaction was conducted at 400 °C. Chlorine and heat content were measured. Experimental results showed that organically bonded chlorine was reduced during torrefaction as a function of mass loss. The chlorine removal efficiency was only dependent on temperature and residence time, not chlorine level. The heat content of the sample increased with mass loss up to a maximum of ~34 MJ/kg at ~45% mass loss. It was also observed that at ~30% mass loss, the organic chlorine content per unit heat content reduced by ~90%, while the heat content was ~32 MJ/kg, and ~90% energy was retained.
Publication Title
Applied Sciences (Switzerland)
Recommended Citation
Xu, Z.,
Albrecht, J.,
Kolapkar, S.,
Zinchik, S.,
&
Bar Ziv, E.
(2020).
Chlorine removal from U.S. solid waste blends through torrefaction.
Applied Sciences (Switzerland),
10(9), 3337.
http://doi.org/10.3390/app10093337
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/2017
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.3390/app10093337