Advanced thermal treatment of auto shredder residue and refuse derived fuel

Abstract

The disposal of End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) results in a highly heterogeneous polymeric waste stream of Automobile shredder residue (ASR). Within Europe, strict legislation, such as the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive and the Landfill Directive, has imposed targets for reducing this waste stream and diverting the material away from landfill. One pathway open to recyclers is to thermally process these wastes, but the presence of chlorine and metallic species can present challenges to traditional incineration technologies. This paper discusses the use of Gasplasma®, an advanced thermal treatment technology, comprising fluidised bed oxy-steam gasification followed by plasma treatment, for ASR, refuse derived fuel (RDF) and blends of ASR and RDF wastes.The work demonstrates the ability to process these highly heterogeneous materials achieving high energy conversion (87–94%) and virtually complete carbon conversion, producing a calorific synthetic gas (syngas) capable of being used for power generation or as a chemical feedstock. The actual conversion efficiency achieved is dependent on feed chemistry and properties. The study also shows that ash components of the feed material can be transformed into an environmentally stable vitrified product.