An explosion has recently occurred at a silo containing refuse-derived fuels (RDF) in Japan. There is a possibility that microorganisms are involved in generation of combustible gas from RDF and this study was aimed at showing the presence of bacteria that can ferment RDF pellets. All RDF samples tested contained a relatively high number of viable bacterial cells, 1.4×105 to 3.2×106 viable cells/g. These bacteria in the RDF samples fermented them to generate heat and hydrogen gas.
