Energy in Solid Wastes from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS Campus

Landfilling of municipal solid waste (MSW) is facing problems due to the limited suitable landfill area and environmental problems from leachate and greenhouse gas emission. Thus, alternative method of disposal is required. This project was conducted to study the potential of recovering the energy in solid wastes from Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) campus through conversion into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) product. Solid wastes from university campus contain high proportion of paper products which are suitable for fuel source. However, the moisture content can be relatively high due to tropical wet climate. Thus, the solid wastes were analyzed in terms of their moisture and energy contents. The energy content of solid waste samples were determined experimentally using bomb calorimeter and theoretically using ultimate analysis, proximate analysis, and compositional analysis. Initial moisture content of the solid wastes was in the range of 27.2 to 36.0 %. From the bomb calorimeter test, the average heat value obtained was 20,523 kJ/kg with the highest and lowest value of 25,532 kJ/kg and 15, 679 kJ, respectively. The energy content from experimental and theoretical analyses show a high correlation with R2 of 0.904 and 0.827 for ultimate analysis and proximate analysis, respectively. Results from compositional analysis showed a lower correlation with results from experimental data where R2 was 0.790. Producing RDF from solid wastes in the university campus under tropical climate reduces the moisture content by 22.40 to 26.80 % and increases the density from 90 kg/m3 to 340 kg/m3. The highest energy content of the RDF was found to be 21,700 kJ/kg.