Zubir Muhammad Afiq, Kamyab Hesam, Vasseghian Yasser, Hashim Haslenda, Zhi Ong Mei, Abdullah Sameer Rajaratnam, Yusuf Mohammad, Kapran Balasubramaniam, Kori Afif Hamidi, Nasri Noor Shawal, Hoang Hien Y
Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT), Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia.
Process Systems Engineering Centre (PROSPECT), Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia; Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, UTE University, Calle Rumipamba S/N and Bourgeois, Quito, Ecuador; Department of Biomaterials, Saveetha Dental College and Hospital, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai, 600 077, India.
Environ Res. 2024 Jun 15;251(Pt 2):118617. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118617. Epub 2024 Mar 11.
This study aims to improve the quality of fuel with high calorific value namely Sfuel - a commercial high-quality refuse-derived fuel (RDF) from hazardous waste via modifying the process design and operating parameters of thermal conversion process. The study analyses key parameters of RDF quality, such as calorific value and heavy metal content, before and after process modifications based on the combination of experimental and simulation using Aspen Plus. In this study, the temperature and pressure of the simulation system are varied from 100 to 700 °C and from 1 to 5 bar, respectively. Findings indicate that there are a total of eleven heavy metals and 179 volatile compounds in the "Sfuels". The quality of the targeted product is greatly improved by the metal evaporation at high temperatures and pressures. However, the calorific value of RDF significantly decreases at 700 °C due to a large amount of the carbon content being evaporated. Although the carbon content at high temperatures is significantly lost, the heat from the vapour stream reactor outlet, which is reused to preheat the nitrogen gas stream supplied to the system, reduces energy consumption while improving the thermal conversion efficiency of the system. Besides, low pressure along with high temperature are not the optimal conditions for quality Sfuels improvement by thermal conversion. Results also indicate that electric heating is more economically efficient than natural gas heating.
本研究旨在通过改进热转化过程的工艺设计和操作参数，提高具有高热值的燃料（即Sfuel）的质量。Sfuel是一种来自危险废物的商业优质垃圾衍生燃料（RDF）。该研究基于使用Aspen Plus进行的实验和模拟相结合的方法，分析了工艺改进前后RDF质量的关键参数，如热值和重金属含量。在本研究中，模拟系统的温度和压力分别在100至700°C和1至5巴之间变化。研究结果表明，“Sfuels”中共有11种重金属和179种挥发性化合物。高温高压下的金属蒸发极大地提高了目标产品的质量。然而，由于大量碳含量蒸发，RDF的热值在700°C时显著降低。尽管高温下碳含量大量损失，但来自蒸汽流反应器出口的热量被重新用于预热供应给系统的氮气流，在提高系统热转化效率的同时降低了能源消耗。此外，低压和高温并非通过热转化提高Sfuels质量的最佳条件。结果还表明，电加热比天然气加热在经济上更高效。
