Project title: Impact of upstream recycling on the bottom ash from energy from waste (EfW) facilities.
Background:
Most of the text books and journals on quantity of bottom ash produced during incineration process suggests that 30% of the input feedstock ends as bottom ash, but the discussion with Viridor Energy Recovery Facility’s performance development team informed that only 18% of the residuals input ended as bottom ash which is may be due to the upstream recycling program used by the company. Thus exploring the relationship between upstream recycling program and bottom ash quantity by performing a mass balance between input and output of the incinerator could provide a greater insight into the mass balance and a better solution to identify the factors influencing the quantity & quality of bottom ash in the incineration process.
Opportunity:
Viridor, a waste management company in the UK which has an interest in developing a commercial market for the bottom ash produced at their energy recovery facilities. All of their facilities are modern and designed to comply with the EU Industrial Emissions Directive. Access to input/output data from these plants represents a unique opportunity to compare the performance of each facility in terms of technology used and the different feedstock types.