CHARACTERIZATION OF LANDFILL MINING MATERIAL AFTER BALLISTIC SEPARATION TO EVALUATE MATERIAL AND ENERGY RECOVERY POTENTIAL

Cristina García Lopez, Anita Ni, Juan Carlos Hernandez Parrodi, Thomas Pretz, Karoline Raulf, Bastian Küppers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

For decades, ballistic separators have been used in Europe as a means of sorting waste to separate mixed waste material streams at material recovery facilities and municipal solid waste treatment plants. Currently, with the growing need to remediate landfill sites, ballistic separators can be employed to recover calorific fractions from excavated landfill material within the framework of enhanced landfill mining. Ballistic separators provide multiple separation steps in one machine: they sort flat two-dimensional materials from rigid three-dimensional materials, while the material is screened to a selected particle size at the same time. The present study shows the results obtained during an investigation performed at the landfill in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium. The main objectives were to acquire first-hand information regarding the efficiency of the ballistic separator in relation to processing old and untreated landfilled material and to study the potential of the landfill as a reservoir of secondary resources. The excavated material was processed through a pre-treatment chain of steps, including material classification and separation, as well as particle size reduction. As a first step, the material was processed with a ballistic separator using two different mesh sizes, 200 mm and 90 mm. Subsequently, the performance of the separator in question was evaluated, especially regarding its effectiveness in the production of refuse derived fuel. The two-dimensional flow was characterized by combustible materials from municipal solid waste and the three-dimensional by construction and demolition waste. As a result, 46% (dry basis) of the input material were fines particles <20 mm, 3% had a calorific value of 22.4 MJ kg-1, 1% 16.0 MJ kg-1 and approximately 1% were magnetic metals that could be recovered by mechanical processes. The results of processing and valorising the potential resources disposed in landfills are essential for the implementation of enhanced landfill mining since revenues from material and energy recovery could contribute to the economic feasibility of the project.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5-23
Number of pages19
JournalDetritus
Volume8.2019
Issue numberDecember
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019

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