Abstract
To achieve more stable combustion control in municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWI), it is necessary to monitor in real time changes in lower heating value (LHV) of the MSW fed into the furnace, and to control precisely the combustion air and stoker speed. In this study, we formulated the compaction and movement of MSW in hoppers and chutes, and developed a calculation model for the status of MSW that is fed into a hopper and furnace by considering its volume and weight in the hopper, its compaction characteristics, and the formula of the relationship between density and LHV. Then, we applied this calculation model in some experiments with artificial waste at a pilot plant to ensure the accuracy and validity of the model. Since the calculated volumes were well matched with real movement volumes in the chute and discharged volumes, this model makes it possible to estimate the volume just fed to a furnace by measuring the change of volume in its hopper. As for the quality of the supplied MSW, the calculated weight was slightly heavier than the real weight, but the high correlation coefficient indicated good reliability. As a result, we concluded that this model is acceptable for estimating the compaction and movement of MSW in a hopper and a chute.
