Unit 4

OFF-SITE PROCESSING
Processing techniques and Equipment
When the solid waste has been collected, where should it be taken and what should be done with
it?
Separation of solid waste could be at the source or at the final stage before disposal of the solid
waste.
Chemical and biological transformation processes are used to reduce the volume and weight of
waste requiring disposal.
It is very important to separate the recyclable materials to reduce the volume of the waste
disposal. Types of separation depend on the types of solid waste. Such as:
 Density separation: air classification is the unit operation used to separate light materials
such as paper and plastic from the heavier materials such as ferrous metal, based on the
weight difference of the material in an air stream.
 Magnetic separation: magnetic separation is a unit operation whereby ferrous metals are
separated from other waste materials by utilizing their magnetic properties.
Engineering consideration involved in the implementation of waste separation include the
following:
§ Selection of the materials to be separated.
§ Identification of the material specifications.
§ Development of separation process flow diagrams.
§ Layout and design of the physical facilities.
§ Selection the equipments and facilities that will be used.
§ Environmental control.
§ Safety and healthy impact.

Recycling: After source reduction, the recovery of materials for recycling and composting is the
next important component of integrated SWM program.
Definition: Resource recovery: means that the materials have not only been removed from the
municipal waste stream, but also, purchased by an end user. The materials are recovered or
recycled.
Recycling include activities such as refilling bottles for reuse and remanufacturing products for
resale to consumers but it is better to use the term recycling only when materials are collected
and used as raw materials for new products. The process of recycling includes collecting
recyclables, separating them by type, processing them into new forms that are sold to
manufacturers, and finally, purchasing and using goods made by reprocessed materials.

There are two main models of recycling:

In countries where there is no financial support from government for unemployed families, it is
common to find informal sector recycling, as has been discussed in Section 11.3. This is
motivated by financial necessity and the people involved often have very little awareness of
environmental concerns and issues. In many cities informal sector recycling has proved to be
financially sustainable, since significant numbers of people have been working in this way for
years, and there is no sign that the numbers are reducing. Environmental sustainability is more of
a problem, since the actors involved often show very little concern for the impacts of their work
on health and the environment.
The other model is found in industrialised countries where there are committed groups of citizens
who lobby for recycling in order to reduce the demand for natural resources and minimise
quantities of waste requiring disposal. Their concerns are environmental, not financial.
Governments have responded to this demand by instituting laws and financial instruments (such
as a tax on landfilling), and requiring local governments and industries to meet targets for
recycling and waste reduction. This recycling involves additional public expenditure and
additional work from each householder (to segregate wastes into two or more streams), and these
additional burdens are accepted by the public with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

One of the major causes of failures in solid waste management in low-income countries is the
copying of systems from very different situations without taking sufficient consideration of local
factors, so it is very important to be aware of the differences between these two models. It is a
mistake to think that recycling is the same all over the world.
In addition to these two models, there is a third model that has been employed in low- and
middle-income countries, but it has not been generally successful. This approach involves the
formal sector – public or private – and relatively large mechanized plants. They are typically
based around mechanised composting plants and are usually set up by the national government
or by an international donor or lending agency. Such plants are usually justified by the large
percentage of compostable (biodegradable) material in the waste stream or by reference to
practice in industrialized countries. Their performance is often unsatisfactory because they are
not suited to the characteristics of the local solid waste, because of inadequate maintenance of
the mechanical plant, or because insufficient attention is paid to the quality and marketing of the
compost that is produced.
The sale of recyclable materials, such as metals and plastics, is often more worthwhile
financially than the sale of compost, but insufficient to meet the costs of running the plant. Some
experiences with operation by large international contractors have been more positive.

Requirements for economic recycling

Most materials can – from a technical standpoint – be recycled, but not everything. Some plastics
cannot be recycled, and some materials, in particular composites of two or more materials, are
not recycled. Electronic equipment contains small quantities of valuable materials, but separating
the various components is very labour-intensive and involves some health risks. In many cases
materials that can technically be recycled are not recycled for financial reasons. Cleanness and
purity have an important impact on the opportunities for profitable recycling.
Recycling is more likely to be successful when there are large quantities and dependable
supplies, which are not too far from a processing factory, and in a form that can be transported
economically. The material should not be contaminated, and should be as homogeneous as
possible. There should be a dependable market for the processed material or products with
reasonably consistent prices.
Transport is often a major cost component – the distance that recyclables must be transported
and the opportunities for reducing haulage costs may play a big part in determining if recycling
at a particular location is to be financially viable. Because many recyclable materials have very
low densities, it is often necessary to compress and bale materials, or shred them, in order to
achieve reasonably economic loads on vehicles and, in some cases, to enable the materials to be
exported. (For example PET plastics from drinking water bottles have been exported from Egypt
to Thailand and China where they are used to make the padding in anoraks and other jackets,
which are then exported, to Europe and the United States.)
At-source segregation can provide materials with less contamination and requiring less sorting,
but the following points should be kept in mind when planning to promote at-source segregation:
It is often better to focus on sources of large quantities of material where there is an institutional
structure that can be used to encourage segregation, such as hotels, restaurants, supermarkets,
factories and offices (but often these opportunities have already been taken by the informal
sector or small enterprises). The segregation at such sources is likely to be better than the
segregation performed by a large number of households, so the material will be more
homogeneous.
Promoting segregation in the home requires a large amount of awareness-raising – both
information and persuasion – and even after considerable efforts the level of co-operation may
not be high. Consideration must be given to motivation. Paying cash for recyclable materials,
exchanging cheap household items for recyclables and giving reductions in utility bills have all
been used to motivate the public to segregate their wastes. It may be difficult to develop a simple
method of assessing the monetary value of a mixture of many kinds of recyclable materials, in
order to pay households for what they have segregated. Only in a few situations should
enforcement by the local authority or the police be considered.
There must be a means of separate collection for the segregated items – either one vehicle with
separate compartments or different vehicles at different times for different wastes.
Most industries that buy materials derived from solid waste require large quantities and
consistent quality. The individuals who collect or sort waste cannot collect large enough
quantities on their own, so they must pool what they have recovered with that of other
individuals. This is usually done by selling to middlemen or dealers. These dealers who buy
recyclables from collectors and waste pickers generally have a bad reputation because they are
accused of exploiting those who sell to them, paying low prices to gain a large profit. In some
cases they may control the market, so that collectors are not free to sell to others for a better
price. Some middlemen assist collectors by renting carts to them and providing loans.
Middlemen may also have good contacts and know the business well so that they are able to
operate more sustainably than newcomers to the trade. Waste pickers sometimes join together to
form a co-operative in order to pool and sell what they have recovered.

Resource recovery from solid wastes

It is often assumed that recycling is always good for the environment, but this is not always true,
and in some cases the environmental authorities may be obliged to prohibit some forms of
recycling.

There are often clear environmental benefits resulting from recycling, such as:

 Reduced quantities of materials requiring land disposal or incineration, so that the air or
water pollution associated with solid waste management are reduced, and less land is
required for waste disposal.
 Reduced consumption of resources (such as petroleum or copper ore) because of the
replacement of virgin raw materials with recycled materials,
 Reduced consumption of energy, since the reprocessing of recovered materials (such as
glass or aluminium) requires much less energy that when virgin raw materials are used
 Improved waste collection services (for instance, waste pickers collecting paper and cans
lying in the street, or waste collection services being largely funded by income from the
sale of recyclables). However, in any particular situation, consideration must also be
given to possible health and environmental problems.
The main problems resulting from informal sector recycling have been listed in the section on
the informal sector. Recycling by the formal sector can cause the same problems, but good
management and supervision can greatly reduce the risks. Monitoring of informal sector
operations is much more difficult because they are not found on official records, occur on a small
scale, and are often intermittent. (For example, some recycling processes that produce a lot of
smoke are operated only at night so that the smoke is more difficult to detect.).
In weighing up these considerations, it must be remembered that informal sector recycling
provides a livelihood for large numbers of citizens in many urban areas, thereby making a
significant impact on the local economy.

Composting
In some situations farmers simply take organic wastes back from the markets when they bring
their vegetables for sale and use this waste without any processing to improve the quality of their
soil. This procedure helps to maintain the value of the soil, but can reduce short-term crop yields
(because nitrogen is taken by the decomposing waste) and result in other nuisances (such as the
presence of glass and plastic in the soil). Composting provides the same benefits without these
drawbacks. Composting is the converting, by aerobic bacteria, of biodegradable wastes (such as
food waste) into a good soil conditioner. Another benefit of composting is that it reduces the
amount of biodegradable wastes in the waste stream, resulting in less pollution. Viable
composting depends upon there being a ready market for the composted material within a short
transport distance from the composting site, and this in general rules out large composting
operations in favour of small-scale local composting where there is a market for compost in
urban horticulture or local farming. In general, mechanised composting has not proved
sustainable in developing countries due to the high costs and short life of the equipment, as well
as the problems of finding a market for the compost large enough to justify a mechanised
operation. However, small-scale manual composting of selected wastes (typically market and
abattoir wastes) can be viable. The equipment requirements at this scale are only hand tools and
some means of transporting the waste to the composting site and the composted material from
the site to the user. General municipal solid wastes often contain large quantities of contrary
materials, including road sweepings and contaminants such as broken glass and plastics, which
are not suitable for composting. There is a tendency to think of compost as a valuable fertiliser.
In fact, its fertiliser value in the form of the three main fertilising elements – nitrogen (N),
phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) – is quite low. The nutrient value can be boosted by co-
composting with sewage sludge, but local farmers may be reluctant to accept compost containing
human excreta. The real value of compost lies in its qualities as a soil conditioner which retains
moisture in sandy soils, and makes heavy soils easier to work. It is often assumed that there is a
demand for compost in a particular place, when in fact there may be none. Any existing demand
for compost can be quickly undermined by concerns about toxic metal content and by the
presence of fragments of glass or plastic. Because it is often a slow process to develop the
demand for compost, it is advisable to start composting on a small scale and increase production
in line with demand.

Incineration
Incineration is the burning of solid wastes at high temperatures in enclosed chambers under
controlled conditions so that air pollution is minimised. The flue gases are cleaned to remove
suspended particles and acid gases. The volume of the solid residues after combustion is likely to
be less than ten percent of the volume of the incoming waste, and these residues do not attract
flies or vermin and do not decompose. However the ash may concentrate toxic heavy metals and
contain soluble components which can pollute water. Inadequately designed and poorly operated
incinerators can cause dangerous air pollution. Incinerators are used for municipal wastes and for
selected hazardous wastes. The processes are expensive in terms of capital costs and operating
costs, and require high standards of operation and maintenance.
a) Incineration of municipal wastes – Incineration of municipal solid waste should not be
attempted in low and middle-income countries, not only because of the costs, but also because
the wastes generally have a low energy value due to their high moisture content and the prior
removal of paper and plastic by waste pickers. If the waste has a low energy value, it is necessary
to add fuel (usually oil) in order to keep the wastes burning, and if the temperatures are too low it
is likely that unacceptable air pollution and damage to the incinerator will result. Large scale
incineration should not be considered without a full-scale analysis of the wastes and a full
engineering feasibility study. In order to demonstrate the unsuitability of the wastes, it may
however be necessary to carry out an initial assessment of the wastes to show that the net
calorific value (NCV) of the wastes (in particular during rainy and watermelon seasons) is
insufficient to support full combustion and offers no possibility of energy recovery.
b) Incineration of hazardous wastes – There are two kinds of hazardous wastes for which
incineration may be recommended.
Hazardous healthcare wastes require special treatment because of the associated risk of infection.
These hazardous wastes are only a small proportion – perhaps 20% – of all wastes coming from
healthcare establishments, so it is important to keep the hazardous wastes segregated from other
waste so that incinerators for treating them can be small and costs are minimised.
These incinerators usually have two chambers in series, and should operate at a temperature of at
least 800°C, but often they are not operating correctly, or not at all. It is essential to have a
contingency plan so that hazardous wastes continue to receive effective and secure treatment and
disposal when the designated incinerator is not operational. Sometimes costly incinerators are
not used to save the cost of the fuel. There are also other ways of treating hazardous healthcare
wastes, notably steam sterilisation.
Hazardous industrial wastes can be very toxic and polluting if they are not managed carefully,
however only a small proportion of industrial wastes are hazardous. The incineration of
hazardous wastes is very expensive indeed, so it is essential to ensure that all wastes treated in
this way are hazardous materials that require incineration. Special high-temperature incinerators
are used. It is also possible to burn hazardous organic wastes in cement kilns. (It is very
important that no wastes containing hazardous heavy metals are incinerated. Such wastes should
be treated chemically before disposal at special landfill sites.)
Many countries have comprehensive tracking systems, recording each stage of the collection,
treatment and disposal chain. The purpose of such systems is to ensure that hazardous wastes are
not disposed with municipal waste but receive the necessary treatment, which is much more
expensive than the methods used for municipal wastes. Hazardous healthcare and industrial
wastes are not included in municipal solid wastes, so they are not discussed further. However
they both require special equipment, special legislation and enforcement, and special
management techniques. The generator of hazardous wastes should be held responsible for
ensuring that their transport, treatment and disposal are according to the requirements of law. In
some industries non-hazardous waste from one industry may be used by another industry as raw
materials.

Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis is a rapidly developing biomass thermal conversion technology and has been garnering
much attention worldwide due to its high efficiency and good eco-friendly performance
characteristics. Pyrolysis technology provides an opportunity for the conversion of municipal solid
wastes, agricultural residues, scrap tires, non-recyclable plastics etc into clean energy. It offers an
attractive way of converting urban wastes into products which can be effectively used for the
production of heat, electricity and chemicals.
Pyrolysis process consists of both simultaneous and successive reactions when carbon-rich organic
material is heated in a non-reactive atmosphere. Simply speaking, pyrolysis is the thermal
degradation of organic materials in the absence of oxygen. Thermal decomposition of organic
components in the waste stream starts at 350°C–550°C and goes up to 700°C–800°C in the absence
of air/oxygen.

Pyrolysis of municipal wastes begins with mechanical preparation and separation of glass, metals and
inert materials prior to processing the remaining waste in a pyrolysis reactor. The commonly used
pyrolysis reactors are rotary kilns, rotary hearth furnaces, and fluidized bed furnaces. The process
requires an external heat source to maintain the high temperature required. Pyrolysis can be
performed at relatively small-scale which may help in reducing transport and handling costs. In
pyrolysis of MSW, heat transfer is a critical area as the process is endothermic and sufficient heat
transfer surface has to be provided to meet process heat requirements.

The main products obtained from pyrolysis of municipal wastes are a high calorific value gas
(synthesis gas or syngas), a biofuel (bio oil or pyrolysis oil) and a solid residue (char). Depending on
the final temperature, MSW pyrolysis will yield mainly solid residues at low temperatures, less than
4500C, when the heating rate is quite slow, and mainly gases at high temperatures, greater than
8000C, with rapid heating rates. At an intermediate temperature and under relatively high heating
rates, the main product is a liquid fuel popularly known as bio oil.

In general, pyrolysis represents a process of thermal degradation of the waste in the total absence
of air that produces recyclable products, including char, oil/wax and combustible gases.
Pyrolysis has been used to produce charcoal from biomass for thousands of years. When applied
to waste management, MSW can be turned into fuel and safely disposable substances (char,
metals, etc.), and the pyrolysis process conditions can be optimized to produce either a solid
char, gas or liquid/oil product, namely, a pyrolysis reactor acts as an effective waste-to-energy
convertor.
Compared to the conventional incineration plant which runs in capacity of kiloton per day; the
scale of pyrolysis plant is more flexible. Recently, MSW pyrolysis is receiving increasing
attention in small cities and towns due to the desire to prevent long-distance transportation; and it
is also demanded in big cities as a distributed MSW treatment method due to the increased
difficulty in finding new sites for incinerators and landfills. Generally distributed MSW
treatment facilities are difficult to ensure environmental safety due to capital cost limitations;
while pyrolysis plants of proper capacity with energy products output are suitable alternative
when the quality of char, oil/wax and combustible gases is under fine control. A variety of
pyrolysis studies have been conducted on industrial wastes such as tyres and plastics, and several
reviews have reported on the characterization of the development of pyrolysis technologies in
terms of different aspects, for example, reactor development and product characterization
conditions for oil production, oil characteristics and upgrading the heating rate and other
governing variables affecting pyrolysis process and pyrolysis products of tyres and the
mechanism investigation or kinetics modelling of the pyrolysis process. These reviews facilitate
making the state-of-the-art of the development of pyrolysis of waste tyres and industrial plastics
well known. As for municipal wastes, the pyrolysis of sewage sludge has been investigated for
decades for liquid production, and the state-of-the-art of this technology has also been addressed
in a recent review. However, compared to waste types such as tyres, plastics and sewage sludge,
MSW is more heterogeneous in composition and size. Currently, for MSW pyrolysis,
information on technology development, characterization of products and correlated pollution is
not sufficient to support technology application and system design, especially in regards to
environmental impacts, which is fundamental for a single step MSW pyrolysis application.
Therefore, this work reviews pyrolysis technologies for MSW, with focus on reactors, the
products from MSW pyrolysis, the pollutants involved with the MSW pyrolysis process and
product applications, and the reported measures to alleviate the associated environmental
impacts. The final aim is to provide essential information for understanding the pyrolysis process
applied to MSW and to standardize its application as an energy converter.

Schematic of the pilot MSW pyrolysis plant in Tianjin, China