Biostabilization-biodrying of municipal solid waste by inverting air-flow.
The process of biodrying could be a good solution for municipal solid waste management, allowing the production of fuel with an interesting energy content. Previous work (Adani, F., Baido, D., Calcaterra, E., Genevini, P.L., 2002. The influence of biomass temperature on biostabilization-biodrying of municipal solid waste. Bioresource Technology 83 (3), 173-179) has indicated that appropriate management of the processing parameters (air-flow rate and biomass temperatures) could achieve biomass drying in very short times (8-9 days). However, the data of that work also evidenced that if the conditions do not consider pile turning, and the air-flow is always from one direction, temperature gradients arise within the biomass, resulting in a lack of homogeneity in the moisture and energy content of the final product. Therefore, a new laboratory study was conducted on municipal solid waste biodrying-biostabilization in an effort to obtain homogeneous final products. Our proposal to solve this lack of homogeneity is to periodically invert the air-flow direction. Thus, in line with a previous study, two trials, A and B, were carried out, dividing the biomass into three layers to study temperature and moisture gradients throughout the process, and a third trial (C) simulating air-flow inversion at regular intervals was introduced. The results suggest that the daily inversion of air-flow eliminates marked temperature differences and leads to a homogeneous final product.
Sugni
Mara
M
Dipartimento di Produzione Vegetale, sez. FCA, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milano, Italy.
Calcaterra
Enrico
E
Adani
Fabrizio
F
D001419:Bacteria; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D018533:Biomass; D019149:Bioreactors; D003890:Desiccation / Q000379:methods*; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D014867:Water
D014867:Water