Abstract
As of 2017, the amount of municipal waste generated in South Korea was 53,489.5 tons/day and almost 30% of it (15,903 tons/day) was represented by food waste. The discharge amount and water content of food waste significantly vary depending on the season as well as the region and location. The factor that has the largest influence on water content is the vegetable content. Depending on the vegetable content, the water content of food waste ranges from 73.8 to 83.3 wt.%. As an alternative technology for addressing problems with recycling technology, the technology of drying and incinerating food waste is emerging. When dried so that the water content can be lower than 10 wt.%, food waste with high organic matter contents exhibit the low heating value of approximately 4,030 kcal/kg. Incinerators for dried food waste can be a method to solve the economic problem of the shortened service life due to high-temperature corrosion, and cogeneration can be recommended. Therefore, in the present study, solid refuse fuel (SRF) samples made by mixing dried food waste with 3-5 wt.% waste polyethylene synthetic resin, which is waste plastic, were subjected to proximate analysis, elemental analysis, heating value measurement. Moreover, for 1-100g SRF samples, the combustion characteristics and combustion gas were analyzed while they were burned in an air atmosphere using a small-scale combustor. The SRF samples made by mixing food waste with 3-5 wt.% waste polyethylene synthetic resin exhibited low heating values ranging from 4,230 to 4,420 kcal/kg.
